At a press event on Wednesday, Warner Bros. Discovery uncovered its “future in streaming,” finally confirming its plans to merge HBO Max and Discovery Plus into one streaming service called Max. The new streaming service will continue to host all of HBO’s original and licensed content, but Discovery’s programming will join the library.
Max streaming service launches May 23
WBD announced that Max will launch on May 23. The service will feature everything currently available on HBO Max and popular content from Discovery Plus, including shows from HGTV, Food Network, TLC, ID, Magnolia, and Discovery.
Everybody who currently pays for HBO Max will get Max when it launches next month. If you have the HBO Max app installed on any of your devices, it will either automatically update to Max, or you’ll be prompted to download the Max app when it arrives. Your username, password, profiles, watch history, etc., will all transfer over automatically.
Most importantly, while the name of the service is changing, the price isn’t. Max with ads will cost $9.99/month or $99.99/year, while ad-free Max will cost $15.99/month or $149.99/year. There is also a new Ultimate Ad-Free plan that will allow subscribers to stream in 4K UHD on 4 devices at once and offers up to 100 offline downloads at a time.
Warner Bros. Discovery also took the opportunity to announce a bunch of upcoming shows, including the Game of Thrones prequel series A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms: The Hedge Night, SmartLess: On the Road, a Big Bang Theory spinoff, and a drama series set in The Conjuring universe. We also got an early look at The Penguin, coming to Max in 2024:
As for the app itself, WBD has made a number of improvements under the hood. Max will have a greater focus on personalization beyond the home screen, a default kids profile for new subscribers, an updated design to simplify navigation, and faster load times.
If you want to know more about Max, visit WBD’s new website for the service at max.com.
