People Are Confused To The Point Of Being Gobsmacked Over Reports That Warner Bros Discovery Will Rebrand HBO Max As ‘Max’

It’s been a whirlwind ride for the Streaming Wars over the past few years, to say the very least. In 2020, HBO Max was born after a rebranding from both the HBO Go and HBO Now platforms, and as everyone knows, the world is a very different place now. With economic upheaval ongoing and a restructuring into Warner Bros Discovery, the service has now absorbed even more content and is now reportedly poised for another shift.

Surely, the idea of thinking up a new name wasn’t an enjoyable task, but what will apparently be rolling out as a rebranding is a head scratcher.

Word rolled out this week (and has since been confirmed by WBD) that HBO Max and Discovery will join streaming forces and be known simply as “Max.” This will be a place where people can not only stream HBO prestige series and ratings juggernauts like House of the Dragon and Succession but also [deep breath] MILF Manor and Dr. Pimple Popper. It’s a bit wild to think about, and “Max” makes me think of Cinemax as well, which does at least suggest the old regime, albeit with a very adult connotation.

Yet the new name is also overall a bit confusing because the “HBO” is the most recognizable, event-TV-focused piece of the equation. The rebranding would be virtually erasing (from a brand perspective) the highest-quality content from the label. Let’s just say that no one can figure out why the “HBO Max” part needs to be changed at all. In other words, “Max” might be breaking what isn’t broken.

— Tim Bishop (@timfumble) April 12, 2023

hbo max dropping hbo // people who watch hbo pic.twitter.com/5NDLZQFuJ7

— alex (@alex_abads) April 12, 2023

Let me get this straight… They DON'T want people to associate their product with premium (ie high quality) content

Most brands would kill to have that kind of association with their brand

— Eye Tyrant (@SeebooTheGoblin) April 12, 2023

Out of the two word phrase “HBO Max” they managed to get rid of the only word that had brand value

Just inconceivably poor managememt from the discovery executives who are running the show now https://t.co/3qHrWDNhOE

— Arlen Parsa (@arlenparsa) April 11, 2023

HBO Max dropping the HBO part is exactly the kind of business decision I’d expect.

“Have you caught Love & Death”

“No. What’s it on”

“Max”

“Cinemax”

“No. Max.”

“Is that like a friend…or a porn site”

“Max.”

— Richard Newby (@RICHARDLNEWBY) April 11, 2023

So Warner Bros Discovery is going to rebrand HBO Max as "Max." Why not call it "Maxwell" or "Maximilian" or "Maxine" while they're at it That makes no sense.https://t.co/KXUSDu5xSl

— Ken Fang — Very Asian (@fangsbites) April 12, 2023

“What if we took everything that made HBO Max good and the best service around and made it really stupid and bad” https://t.co/TMzwRD75mO

— Douglas Reyes-Ceron (@dreyesceron) April 12, 2023

getting rid of the HBO in HBO Max is probably one of the most insane marketing decisions in tv history https://t.co/v9AAjUVVTL