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Just after Max‘s launch in Australia, Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) APAC president James Gibbons and ANZ general manager Michael Brooks sat down with Deadline to talk about launching Max’s first-ever ad-supported tier in the APAC region, plans for originals and some takeaways from other launches around Asia.
The Max launch in Australia brings WBD’s content together in one place, offering Australian subscribers access to HBO original programming, Warner Bros. films, the DC Universe, Harry Potter, Max originals, Discovery Channel, Cartoon Network and the Food Network. It was given some firepower with a star-studded launch attended by The Last of Us Season 2 stars including Bella Ramsey, Gabriel Luna, Kaitlyn Dever, who came to Sydney. They were joined by several The White Lotus Season 3 cast members including Patrick Schwarzenegger, Leslie Bibb and New Zealand-born Morgana O’Reilly.
Brooks, general manager of WBD for the ANZ region, said that his team were confident launching Max in Australia due to the high penetration rate of SVoD in Australia, which stands at 86% of households. He also pointed out that there was already a strong fan base in Australia for WBD content, including the DC and Harry Potter franchises, alongside Friends and The Big Bang Theory.
“The average number of services that each household selects in Australia is around three services, so we knew we had to be one of those three,” Brooks told Deadline. “What I take away from day one here is not only how positive people are around the product itself, but also that people are taking the annual packages in a big way, which says to us that this is a service that they want a long commitment to, that it’s one of their three services.”
Similar to how WBD partnered with Sky for its New Zealand launch in October 2024, WBD has teamed up with Foxtel in Australia, providing access to the entire Foxtel television base and consumers.
First ad-supported tier in APAC
Australia is also the first APAC market where WBD has launched an ad-supported tier for Max.
“That’s a really important move for us, because from a consumer’s perspective, we’re able to offer a lower-priced entry point for the service for us to tap into a broader potential base,” said WBD Asia-Pacific president Gibbons. “We’ve decided to do this in Australia, because the digital ad sales market is very developed, so there’s a whole model for being able to support that tier.”
Collaborating with Australia’s Nine Entertainment as its exclusive sales partner has helped to get the ad-supported tier off the ground, Gibson noted.
He added that introducing ad-supported tiers in other APAC markets is contingent on the development of the premium streaming advertising market.
“A lot of people place advertising on videos and radio, which offer cheaper rates with mass reach. The whole premium advertising market is something that tends to develop later. We would love to offer the service, but it needs to be backed up by the development of that market segment,” added Gibbons.
Instead, Max was launched with a mobile-exclusive tier in Indonesia and the Philippines, at a lower price point.
“The reason we did that is because of the mobile phone usage in those markets,” said Gibbons. “I think it’s important, when you have your own product, that you can tailor your product and go to the market in a way that’s also locally relevant.”
Original production in Australia
Both Gibbons and Brooks said that WBD is not ready to launch an originals slate in Australia yet, but hope to do so within the next five years.
Gibbons added that it takes time to build an original slate properly and that the focus of Max for now is on the mix of international entertainment, although WBD wants to offer a “localized proposition” in the future.
WBD already has some production capability and infrastructure in Australia, with Brooks heading up Warner Bros. International Television Production Australia, producing shows for other broadcasters through the studio. Some Australian shows made through the label include Outback Opal Hunters and Aussie Gold Hunters .
Brooks pointed out that the launch of Max can also help provide internal data and information about viewership that will eventually help shape an originals slate.
“We’ve had our HBO and Warner Brothers content licensed here for a long time, but we don’t know exactly how to cater for our audience from a local perspective. We’ve got to get that data ourselves,” said Brooks.
On how the WBD team will measure the success of the Max launch in Australia, Gibbons said: “We have our internal measures which relate to subscriber growth overall, churn rate, so you know how long our customers are staying with us.”
Building brand awareness
The biggest area that Brooks has been working on alongside the WBD APAC team is raising the brand awareness around Max, the exec explained.
Gibbons added: “Our basic philosophy is that we’re not creating service for everyone. We’re not going for the volume in that sense, but to be sure that when people come to Max, they get the true Max experience.”
Looking to WBD’s experience in other APAC markets where Max has launched after previously having a licensing relationship, Gibbons added that the attraction of Max for users is the convenience of finding WBD’s content under one roof, which has significantly encouraged more content discovery.
“Where we’ve had a licensing relationship previously, let’s say in Southeast Asia or Japan, people watch the popular shows, but when you put it all together in one place, the level of engagement around the Max service is, I would say, arguably greater than for the individual titles,” said Gibbons. “I can’t share with these particular numbers on that, but certainly that’s our perception that there’s a lot more engagement because all the content is in one place.”
Gibbons highlighted Thailand and Indonesia as two of its most important markets in Southeast Asia.
The production of The White Lotus in Thailand, as well as the casting of Thai singer-actress Lisa (part of K-pop group Blackpink), has bolstered awareness around Max in the country.
“It was shot in Thailand and it had Lisa as one of the key roles in the series, so that really lifted the awareness around the service, the acquisitions, the engagement levels, everything went up,” says Gibbons.
He further pointed out that Indonesia is a “very high-potential market” given the country’s large population, and that Max is “making good headway there.” However, he added that competition is still very stiff.
While many streamers have turned to the provision of live sports as a key differentiating strategy to increase and retain subscribers, Gibbons and Brooks said that there are no plans to launch live sports as part of Max’s program offerings in Australia yet.
“We always look at what’s happening in the market, what’s happening with our competitors, but at launch now, the focus is delivering our core product and delivering that really well,” said Brooks.
