Today, at an event on the Warner Bros. studio lot in Burbank, California, WarnerMedia revealed that its upcoming streaming service HBO Max will launch domestically in May 2020.
HBO Max will come packaged with the entire HBO service bundle and a “large new offering of original content appealing to all the younger demos, plus a choice slate of acquired programming and titles from the extensive WB libraries.”
Among that acquired content is Rick and Morty, Doctor Who, and South Park, which will stream exclusively on the service. In addition to the previously announced series, HBO Max is currently running down everything on its official twitter account.
WarnerMedia is offering its 10 million current HBO subscribers to have a “frictionless opportunity” to sign up and get HBO Max immediately on day one. Long term the company is projecting they will hit 50 million domestic subscribers and 75-90 million worldwide by 2025.
Wondering if you’ll be able to binge? HBO Max’s Kevin Reilly revealed that it looks like it won’t be taking a page out of Netflix and Amazon’s handbook:
“Our max original rollout strategy will also be curated based on the specific piece of content, but will largely mirror the weekly HBO release pattern.”
I’m beginning to wonder if dropping full seasons at once is seeing its end. Shows like Riverdale, Westworld, This Is Us, and Game of Thrones certainly benefit from having a week for fans to debate and discuss the latest episode. Reilly stated as much, saying:
“Our creators also see the difference in rolling out shows gradually and letting them breathe. [Hits] like Succession and Chernobyl became part of the zeitgeist with a weekly release schedule, rather than fading quickly after a binge and burn. We know people love to binge and on HBO max you can binge previous seasons and library content to your heart’s desire…”
HBO Max honestly has a few projects that would get me to subscribe, but I’ve never really been a streaming guy. That looks to change though as physical media continues its slow descent into extinction. But I’ll ride it to the grave until then.
Will you be subscribing to HBO Max come May 2020? What acquired or original programming would get you to pull the trigger and subscribe?
