HBO Max Plans Reveal Name Change, New Price, and New Shows

Ahead of Warner Bros. Discovery reveling their official plans for the new HBO Max/Discovery+ combined streaming service, which they’ve announced they will do next month, a new report has revealed some interesting details. According to Bloomberg, when the new service rolls out it will seemingly maintain the same pricing that HBO Max already has, $10 for an ad-supported tier and $16 for no ads, while also adding a third tier at $20 with higher video quality and other features. The outlet reports that these plans could still change ahead of the reveal of the service, which will just be titled “Max,” in just a few weeks.

One of the biggest additions that will be made to Max is they will throw in “thousands of titles” on the streaming service, all coming from Discovery’s “library of unscripted lifestyle shows,” I.E. their Discovery+ content. Unlike the earliest reports about the combined service, Warner Bros. Discovery has indicated that Discovery+ will continue to operate on its own rather than be folded into Max completely. WBD plans to reveal further details about its combined HBO Max-Discovery+ streaming service on an April 12th press day.

“We’re excited about the fact that we’re going to take all of the Discovery content and put it together with the HBO Max content in a much better platform,” Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav said in the company’s most recent quarterly earnings call.  “But the key to this company is, as a storytelling company, we have this diversity….We have the ability to pick from all of these different baskets to build really what may be most important for us, which is a successful and profitable streaming business. That HBO Max, whatever we call it on the launch, is a product that we take around the world and that has a real impact on how people consume content. We believe in it because we believe we have the best menu of content, the best portfolio, the best quality. And we’re curating now in a way that’s having an impact on America.”

He added, “And so I think that is key to us in terms of building the long-term strength. But the other key is that we have the largest TV and motion picture library and we’re the biggest producer of quality content in the world. And so selling that to drive free cash flow and to nourish the overall segment, so that we, as a media segment, can be successful is important.”

Check back here in roughly one month’s time to get all the details on the combined HBO Max/Discovery+ streaming service as we learn about them officially.