“Dropping HBO from the name is cementing that 'we're not just a home for premium programming,'" Alexander said. "'We're the home for anything you want to watch.'"
I suspect, however, that the real reason Is because “Max” is much easier to remember and pronounce for the international audience that they will aggressively court.
One of their execs said it was to do with the HBO brand having been marketed at adults:
"We want [Max] to be welcoming to all and easily recognizable, including to a key customer segment, kids and families,” JB Perrette, president and CEO of Warner Bros. Discovery’s global streaming and games, said at the event. “We all love HBO. And it’s a brand that has been built over five decades to be the edgy, groundbreaking trendsetter in entertainment for adults. But it’s not exactly where parents would most eagerly drop off their kids.”
It's a strong brand known for premium content but it is associated with more mature/adult content. They want the service to be marketed more to families and kids with the likes of Harry Potter.
"We want [Max] to be welcoming to all and easily recognizable, including to a key customer segment, kids and families,” JB Perrette, president and CEO of Warner Bros. Discovery’s global streaming and games, said at the event. “We all love HBO. And it’s a brand that has been built over five decades to be the edgy, groundbreaking trendsetter in entertainment for adults. But it’s not exactly where parents would most eagerly drop off their kids.”
This is incredibly ironic because before all this merger bullshit with AT&T and then Discovery, HBO had a really strong kids and family programming department. Hell during the cable TV heydays HBO had an HBO Family channel that only aired family friendly content.
Speaking of HBO throwbacks and family friendliness, anyone remember when the main HBO channel would only play movies rated PG-13 or below before 8pm? Once they got all the sub channels they would play whatever, whenever, but they held out to that rule for the main channel for themselves up until I stopped regularly watching linear cable TV about 15 years ago. It seems so quaint now when any 7 year old can hop on YouTube and pull up that scene from The Wire where they have an entire 3 minute conversation saying nothing but “fuck”.
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https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/12/business/media/max-warner-new-streaming-app.html
https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/other/warner-bros-discovery-explains-why-it-s-dropping-the-hbo-max-name/ar-AA19MrZa
"We want [Max] to be welcoming to all and easily recognizable, including to a key customer segment, kids and families,” JB Perrette, president and CEO of Warner Bros. Discovery’s global streaming and games, said at the event. “We all love HBO. And it’s a brand that has been built over five decades to be the edgy, groundbreaking trendsetter in entertainment for adults. But it’s not exactly where parents would most eagerly drop off their kids.”
https://archive.org/details/it-s-not-porn-it-s-hbo
It's a strong brand known for premium content but it is associated with more mature/adult content. They want the service to be marketed more to families and kids with the likes of Harry Potter.