HBO Max Will Launch on May 27

HBO Max, WarnerMedia's new streaming service combining HBO with Warner Bros. movies and Turner TV shows, will launch on May 27th, the company announced today. From a report: HBO Max's big selling point is being able to combine all of HBO's offerings on top of a slate of original titles that are exclusive to the app, classic Warner Bros. movies, and more. HBO Max will also be the exclusive home of Friends, which hasn't been streaming anywhere in the United States since it left Netflix on January 1st. (Although some of the service's exclusives, like the Friends reunion special, are facing delays following production issues caused by the novel coronavirus pandemic.) The streaming service offers more to watch than HBO Now and HBO Go, and WarnerMedia and AT&T are hoping people who use both services will switch over to Max, the company's new crown jewel. Existing HBO subscribers on AT&T (approximately 10 million) and HBO Now direct billing subscribers will get HBO Max for free, the company previously announced. Customers who subscribe to AT&T's premium video, mobile, and broadband packages will be offered bundles with HBO Max at no additional cost. At a cost of $14.99 a month, HBO Max is the priciest of the entries in the so-called streaming wars.

So then why would someone choose Go?

[SuperKendall]

From the article:

It's also one of the most expensive streaming services on the market, coming in at $14.99 a month. That's the same price as what customers pay for the network via their cable packages as well as the price of HBO's current standalone streaming app, HBO Now.

This service is really confusing to me, why not just have Go become Max? What is the point of Go if Max will cost the same, but offer more content? Is there some limit to who can get Max? It didn't seem like it.

Or why not just transitio

Re:

[nightflameauto]

This whole transition has been a mess from the start. Those of us currently subscribed to one of the direct services from HBO STILL have no idea if they are transitioning us to Max, keeping us on our current plan (at the same price as Max) or if we have to drop our current service and jump on the new one on a certain date. I imagine a day will come where I go to pull up my current HBO app and it says service no longer available and then I'll be stuck trying to figure out what I'm supposed to do. I'm quit

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[lactose99]

I'd hold-off until HBO unveils UltraMegaMaxiMAXX service as to not make things confusing.

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[Hadlock]

Yeah we accidentally cancelled our HBO now (go? now?) subscription so that we could get HBO Max, because Doctor Who dropped off Prime and is going to HBO Max.... HBO has been rolling out HBO Max for so long, we thought it had already been rolled out months ago...

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[Larry Lightbulb]

The BBC blocks most VPNs from iPlayer use.

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[sabbede]

Of course it has, this is AT&T we're talking about. The company that started a streaming service - DirecTV Now - then a competing service for cell customers, then changed the name to AT&T TV, and then apparently to AT&T TV Now, while renaming one of their other services to AT&T TV, but not keeping any of it straight on the backend so all the links for what used to be DirecTV Now go to the wrong place. The company that can't work out licensing deals between its streaming service and the War

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[Kaenneth]

Long term no-compete contracts with the cable companies.

For HBO Max their legal structure probably took more work their their technical structure. (streaming is practically turnkey at this point)

Uh oh

[Richard_at_work]

Have HBO got their MCAS fixed before launch? I hope so, for their sake...

Friends

[ArchieBunker]

How is that show considered funny and so popular? It wasn't funny in the 1990s and it still isn't funny now.

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[skam240]

I figure Friends fans are the same group of people that think Disney makes great movies. There's a shit ton of'em but I'll never understand why.

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[Stolovaya]

Well, it's funny according to a lot of people who aren't you. Not that I get out a whole lot, but I've seen a couple teenagers wearing Friends shirts.

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[hcs_$reboot]

Consider yourself an exception.

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[Kaenneth]

it's easy entertainment to relax, not to stimulate.

Elevator music TV.

Suuuuuuuure!

[lennier1]

Just what the world needed, yet another damn streaming service and one that tries to be even more expensive than the competition.

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[tlhIngan]

Just what the world needed, yet another damn streaming service and one that tries to be even more expensive than the competition.

It's even worse than that, since HBO has two EXISTING streaming services. One requires a cable subscription to use, another doesn't. And now HBO has a third.

It's one thing for each company to have their own streaming service - I can understand CBS and NBC and ABC and such having their own service. What I don't understand is HBO having 3 different services.

FYI, you can blame Apple

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[rtb61]

What they do in reality is starve themselves as people swap streaming services on rotation. View the best content, get bored, swap services, view the best content, get bored, swap services and on it goes. Although with some, people are not in that much of a hurry to use again for a few months. So not really competition beyond how many months you can hold them before losing them to other services for how many months before you see them back again.

Still money ahead...

[Carcass666]

Just moved our TV service from Frontier + HBO to Hulu + Netflix. Frontier bill dropped from $250 to $55 (100 mbps sync). Hulu (unlmiited screen, enhanced DVR, commercial-free) and Netflix together are $95. So, with the $100 I'm saving per month, I can hop on and off the HBO, Disney and CBS trains as I see fit, and still be saving money. People complain about the a-la-carte thing, but for me, it's fine, especially since there is no multi-month commitment.

Guess I'll cancel until its all sorted out

[joe_frisch]

Have HBO - not sure what will be left with HBO_MAX and eventually HBO-supermax (the all prison movie channel). I'll cancel my subscription until its all sorted out and I find out what i need to pay to see what I want.

Will DirecTV satellite users need 2 boxes per tv?

[Joe_Dragon]

Will DirecTV satellite users need 2 boxes per tv? To get all HBO_MAX stuff?

Will the HBO_MAX shows be on the main hbo channel?

VOD.

Does ATT / DirecTV really want comcast X1 to have it all on one box where own satellite viewers need more then 1 to get the same?

Re:

[sabbede]

Is DirecTV still called DirecTV? I had DirecTV Now, which they renamed to AT&T TV, and apparently just decided to rename again to AT&T TV Now, but without updating the back end so accounts and support are all over the place.

But as for your question - probably. Nothing is connected to anything else at AT&T. They don't even have valid internal phonebooks.

And don't forget - when they acquired HBO through Warner, they looked at its incredible success and immediately decided they needed to c

I pay $15/mo for Hulu

[rsilvergun]

so I don't have to watch adverts.