Warner Bros. Discovery’s flagship streaming service will return to its original HBO Max name on Wednesday, ending an ill-starred rebranding as Max.
The timing of the shift, which was announced to a theater full of stunned (yet amused) advertisers last May during WBD’s upfront presentation, was confirmed to Deadline by a person familiar with the rebrand.
Executives cited recent momentum, with the service adding global markets and 22 million subscribers over the past year, and also a goal to “amplify the uniqueness” of their brand to viewers drowning in an ocean of programming. Hints of the change appeared last spring, as Max’s color scheme changed from blue to dark grey, the second shift since the launch with purple in 2020. The new logo preserves the rounded letters of the original HBO.
WBD, which was formed in 2022 after the merger of Discovery and WarnerMedia, initiated the name change as part of an effort to blend programming from Discovery’s unscripted networks with HBO and other fare. The mix never took, as executives later conceded, and the sentiment arose internally at the company about restoring the name of one of the media world’s most potent brands to the name of the service.
During the upfront, streaming and gaming chief JB Perrette and HBO and Max content head Casey Bloys assessed the progress in streaming over the past five years and walked ad buyers through the upcoming change. When Bloys made the big reveal, it drew audible laughs and a ripple of applause at the Theatre at Madison Square Garden. “I know you’re all shocked, but the good news is I have a drawer full of stationery from the last time around,” Bloys quipped.
Turning more serious, he added, “With the course we are on and strong momentum we are enjoying, we believe HBO Max far better represents our current consumer proposition.”
The 2023 rebrand to Max was one of several stumbles after the merger, which has seen shares in WBD worth a fraction of their price after the close of the deal. Refining the company’s streaming strategy has taken on new urgency now that WBD intends to split its streaming and studios business from its cable TV networks. That separation is targeted to close by mid-2026.
