Forgive us, but we must say LOL! As basically everyone predicted, Max is changing its name back to HBO Max two years after it originally cut those three little letters (and a lot of prestige) out of the Max streaming brand. What’s dead may never die, but we’re pretty sure this is it for Max. From now on, the short-lived streamer will have to kneel at the feet of the true king in the streaming, HBO Max.
Max Will Change Its Name Back to HBO Max
In May of 2023, we wrote dubiously of the name change from Max to HBO Max, noting that “Given that HBO Max has some pretty significant brand awareness, the rebrand seems strange for fans of the platform. It seems like the Warner Bros. Discovery’s perspective, however, is that if the HBO stayed, users wouldn’t understand that the platform now also contained a different kind of content. In an effort to appeal to as many subscribers as possible, HBO was removed from the title of the streamer. Of course, to many HBO symbolizes a kind of prestige and quality. So we will have to wait and see how users respond to the rebrand, and, ultimately, whether it was a good idea.”
And it turns out, changing HBO Max’s name to Max was NOT a good idea. HBO was synonymous with prestige, quality, and excellent storytelling. Max wanted to be a catch-all brand that tried to offer something to everyone, but in the end, spread itself too thin in its attempts and lost some of the appeal that HBO had carefully built.
At Warner Bros. Discovery’s 2025 upfront presentation, the company revealed that Max would change its name back to HBO Max. Warner Bros. Discovery shared in a release, “Returning the HBO brand into HBO Max will further drive the service forward and amplify the uniqueness that subscribers can expect from the offering. It is also a testament to WBD’s willingness to keep boldly iterating its strategy and approach — leaning heavily on consumer data and insights — to best position itself for success.”
Recently, there were signs that Warner Bros. Discovery wanted to change Max back into HBO Max. For one, it recently updated its color scheme, ditching the Max blue it had worked so hard to concoct in favor of returning to HBO’s classic white and black schema. Just a month ago, as we wrote up the story, we mused, “But hey, the return of black and white to Max’s branding makes us think they’re onto something… Maybe one day soon the streamer will even change its name to HBO Max once again.” But we could not have expected it to happen so quickly.
Uniqueness Is Back in the Conversation
CEO David Zaslav shared with the audience at the upfront presentation the following words (which we saw via Variety), “The powerful growth we have seen in our global streaming service is built around the quality of our programming. Today, we are bringing back HBO, the brand that represents the highest quality in media, to further accelerate that growth in the years ahead.”
We’d like to point out that no one asked Warner Bros. Discovery to change Max’s name to HBO Max. Instead, as mentioned, this feels like it was done out of a desire to become the streamer that viewers went to for literally everything. But when HBO had such a specific and known brand associated with it, and a good one at that, dismantling that didn’t seem like such a great move. In a previous article, we noted that owning your errors is a step in the right direction. But the question now is whether the HBO Max to Max to HBO Max name changes have confused viewers enough that getting back the power that the HBO brand possessed will even be possible.
Warner Bros. Discovery president and CEO of streaming, JB Perrette’s statements seem to indicate that HBO Max will surely try. For the first time, the uniqueness of the HBO brand has returned to the conversation. Perrette noted, “We will continue to focus on what makes us unique — not everything for everyone in a household, but something distinct and great for adults and families. It’s really not subjective, not even controversial — our programming just hits different.”
Casey Bloys, chairman and CEO of HBO and Max content, concluded with a sentiment that stressed the words “HBO.” He offered, “With the course we are on and strong momentum we are enjoying, we believe HBO Max far better represents our current consumer proposition. And it clearly states our implicit promise to deliver content that is recognized as unique and, to steal a line we always said at HBO, worth paying for.”
When Will Max Change Its Name Back to HBO Max?
Warner Bros. Discovery shares in a release, “Max, the company’s premier streaming platform, will be rebranded HBO Max this summer.” This summer isn’t a very clear time period, but we assume, sooner rather than later.
As Bloys notes above, people have always believed HBO is worth paying for. But HBO tried to dismantle itself into Max. So, now we’ll see if HBO Max can go the distance. Cheers to the name change, it’s about time.
Content shared from nerdist.com.