HBO Max‘s early growth in Australia is fuelling belief among Warner Bros Discovery (WBD)’s management about the crucial upcoming launches in the UK, Germany and Italy.
WBD added 3.4 million subscribers for the second quarter to reach 125.7 million overall, with a whopping 3.2 million of those from international markets, earnings results showed today. The launch of HBO Max in Australia in March was described in comments as “very successful,” with “healthy retail traction” combining with a carriage partnership with local pay-TV player Foxtel.
Kantar stats from end-July suggested HBO Max had gained around 400,000 subs since launch (20% of all new subs), accounting for around 5% of the country’s streaming market.
The hope is similar scenarios will play out in the three European territories, where HBO content has traditionally gone out through pay-TV service Sky. HBO Max launches in the UK/Ireland, Germany and Italy in early 2026, with WBD CEO and President David Zaslav pointing to the “embedded audience” during an investors call for Q2.
“There are some markets where people have been watching The Last of Us, Euphoria, The White Lotus and House of the Dragon on a different platform,” he said. “Now it’s going to move to HBO Max. In that case, we have a hugely engaged population who will be spending a lot more time watching. We’re seeing that in Australia.”
He added HBO Max was “getting very powerful pull-through in terms of demand in the UK, Germany and Italy.”
JB Perrette, WBD’s President of Global Streaming and Games, provided further context on the Australian launch, where it’s fair to say some market watchers believed debuting a full decade after the likes of Netflix could hamper its performance.
“We love that double track of fishing in a pond that’s already stocked with our partners and at the same time going direct,” he said. “Australia has been a great success story for us in these early months and has exceeded our expectations. This makes us even more bullish in what we expect to see at the beginning of next year in the European markets.”
WBD’s revenue for the quarter was flat at $9.8 billion, in line with forecasts. The company’s net income for the three months ended in June was $1.58 billion, up from a massive loss pushing $10 billion the year before.
