When the Warner Bros. Discovery merger materialized, its managers considered what to do with the HBO brand. Its content, a careful selection of series premium, is very far from the catalog of the platform that dominates the iconic pay television channel in Spain. As of this Tuesday, HBO Max remains only Max. To the DC superhero movies, the Warner classics and the children’s and youth content of Cartoon Network from the now defunct HBO Max, lifestyle, contests, entertainment, sports and nature programs from the Discovery brands are now being added. Television series will continue to be one of its great attractions. But it is not an expanded product, but rather a completely different one, those responsible defend.
“This is not a business for niche content. We needed to create an offer that was as global and familiar as possible, capable of competing with Netflix and Disney+. We could not keep HBO in the title, although it will continue to be one of the most relevant elements of our offer,” comments the executive vice president and director of Italy, Spain and Portugal at Warner Bros. Discovery, Alessandro Araimo, in a telematic conversation from Milan.
The American Casey Bloys, president and executive director of the HBO and Max content area, highlights from Los Angeles that gastronomy, interior design and dating shows add to an increasingly eclectic offering. “For that, we need to be in as many windows as possible,” says Bloys. He refers to the fact that Max will also be available in Spain on Prime Video and on Movistar Plus +. Although it may seem contradictory, it is an important step for the roadmap of those responsible, explains Alessandro Araim: “the platform business has understood that it cannot only have a content distribution window. Being present in what is considered competition is beneficial. It is something that allows us to reach the greatest possible number of viewers, in order to grow in subscribers and for Max to become a more profitable product,” admits the Italian.
The incorporation of sports is one of the great novelties of this new on-demand content service. “It’s the way to make it more complete than the competition,” says the Italian. It is also the way in which live broadcasts continue to sneak into Spanish platforms, after the arrival of Triumph operation to Prime Video and the entire Movistar Plus+ sports offer. “The live is relevant in the war of the streaming and it will be more so in the future,” Araimo advances. Since last summer, Warner Bros. Discovery has added a live CNN signal to its service in the United States. In Spain, the presence of live news content is not yet defined and “will follow the guidelines of the global strategy,” he comments.
Local content and franchises
Thinking about the Spanish market, local premieres will be one of the platform’s strong points, Araimo advances. It will do so with the return of Beijing Express with well-known contestants and with Miguel Ángel Muñoz as presenter and the premiere of Naked Attractiona dating show led by Marta Flich in which the participants are completely naked. Among its original series, stands out Rage, with a powerful female cast (Candela Peña, Carmen Machi, Cecilia Roth, Nathalie Poza and Pilar Castro). Maribel Verdú will star When no one sees usdirected by Enrique Urbizu and Leticia Dolera will direct and star Puberty. The series that will not survive the change from HBO Max to Max is 30 coins. It will not have a third seasonalthough Alex de la Iglesia assures that the fiction was intended to be a trilogy.
Another of the great opportunities that on-demand content is giving to majors as Warner is to give new life to its great franchises, intertwining its cinematographic stories with others designed for television. Max just announced that he will do it with Dunewhich is already preparing the series Dune: Prophecy After the recent success in theaters Dune 2. the saga Harry Potter will also be revived as an ambitious television series. And Batman will have a spin-off in series form, The Penguinfocused on one of its great villains.
Both Bloys and Araimo agree on the same prediction: the war of the streaming It is becoming increasingly bloody and, in the future, only four or five global platforms will be able to survive at the same time in such a saturated international market and in which there are also local platforms. “The lives of the spectators will be simpler,” Araimo comments ironically. “And it will mean that we only opt for content that the viewer can accept, that they are capable of consuming,” Bloys completes. “In the United States alone we have gone from creating 600 series a year to 450. And this will happen in the rest of the world,” he predicts, even if that means generating fewer jobs in the entertainment industry. To be among those chosen, Bloys makes a promise to Spanish users: “The technical quality will be much higher. “There will be fewer technical errors than the platform has had until now.”
Rates and subscription options
Starting this Tuesday, when you open the HBO Max app, you will be asked to download the Max app. If you view the content through hbomax.comyou will be redirected to max.com automatically. Billing and login details for Max will be the same as for HBO Max. Profiles, viewing history and My List will be transferred to Max and continue as each user left them.
In the standard plan, 9.99 euros per month, users will be able to enjoy streaming of content on two devices simultaneously. The content will be available in Full HD resolution. This plan will allow up to 30 downloads of content available for offline viewing.
The plan known as premium will cost 13.99 euros. Provides a better consumer experience. Users can watch content on up to four devices simultaneously and will do so with Full HD or 4K resolution and with Dolby Atmos sound (depending on availability). This plan will allow up to 100 downloads of content available for offline viewing.
Apart from the coverage of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, which will be included in all subscription packages, there will be the possibility of a sports add-on with Eurosport, for an extra five euros per month. This option offers coverage of sporting events such as the tennis Grand Slam, cycling races, the 24 Hours of Le Mans, the live linear channels Eurosport 1 and 2, among others. Users will be able to watch sports content on two devices simultaneously (limited to two of their broadcasts available in the base plan). For now, advertising will be limited to these live broadcasts, but in the future the platform contemplates, as in the US and as the competition is doing, a package with advertising, but without specifying a date or price.
As the company explains to this newspaper, users who signed up for the initial HBO Max offer in 2021 with a 50% discount for life will keep it, as long as they do not change their subscription plan. This discount, they clarify, does not maintain a fixed price, but rather a fixed discount: half the cost of the basic subscription. If the basic rate increases in the future, the price of this offer will increase to just half.
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