HBO Max/Discovery+ Merger

[NashGuy]

While it is high quality, it is not the only place anymore as it used to be, there is plenty of high quality on other services, The Offer on Paramount+ seemed like a HBO type show for one example.

True, but I'd say that HBO is the most consistent in terms of having high quality original content. Although Hulu has had a pretty good run in the past year or so, between the FX stuff and its own originals. Apple TV+ has a few great series plus a lot of stuff that looks high-quality -- big stars, glossy production, etc -- that gets middling reviews. But I can imagine them becoming the "next HBO" eventually.

 

[KAB]

True, but I'd say that HBO is the most consistent in terms of having high quality original content. Although Hulu has had a pretty good run in the past year or so, between the FX stuff and its own originals. Apple TV+ has a few great series plus a lot of stuff that looks high-quality -- big stars, glossy production, etc -- that gets middling reviews. But I can imagine them becoming the "next HBO" eventually.

I've had HBO for a year with the last $13.00 promo, which is over now. I will have to say I maybe spent 10% of my streaming time there. Until House of Dragons and now, Last Of Us, they didn't have have much for me. Going to cancel later this month, and maybe jump back in for a month in the summer.

 

[RedPenguin]

It is sort of bitter sweet.

I have no diss with HMAX, other than I wish it had more classic HBO Shows that I grew up with in the 90s/00s.

Anyway, my main niche in streaming is classic tv/documentary/paranormal/crime and Discovery just fits that bill minus the classic tv way better than HMAX. So it’s just nice to not have like triple the price as a DSCP sub.

Anyway, I knew something had to be going on as why would you add DSCP to Roku & Sling/Dish just months before you are dropping it? Also its been noticed in browsers that they have even migrated the Discovery Go’s to the Discovery+ infrastructure and increased their quality.

 

[NashGuy]

Here's an offer to get one free month of HBO Max with ads. Note that while this plan has a limited amount of ads on non-HBO content, the HBO library itself remains ad-free as always. Cancel before the month is up to avoid getting charged $9.99 for the next month.

Join Microsoft Rewards and get a 30-day free trial of HBO Max

Stream top titles with a 30-day free trial of the HBO Max With Ads monthly plan when you join Microsoft Rewards

www.microsoft.com

 

[RedPenguin]

Just in case anyone is curious, it looks like WD struck a 1-yr deal with Tubi and probably Roku.

I noticed in their source code for the episodes, it says “addedDate 2-23-23” and says “validUntil: 2-23-24” or similar language.

I just wish Tubi would add a Warner/Discovery Tab as it seems that there is no easy way to just see all the new WBtv Content on Tubi like you can just A&E or Lifetime for example.

 

[Josephinelcajon]

I have HBO through ATT for free and pay for Discovery+ I use Discovery+ a lot and HBO a lot less now that West World is done. The offers for with commercials really disappoints me. One of the main reasons I stream is not to see any commercials!

 

[Bruce]

more news-

According to Bloomberg, when the new service rolls out it will seemingly maintain the same pricing that HBO Max already has, $10 for an ad-supported tier and $16 for no ads, while also adding a third tier at $20 with higher video quality and other features. The outlet reports that these plans could still change ahead of the reveal of the service, which will just be titled "Max," in just a few weeks.

As I posted before, the price is jumping to $20 for what we get now, 4K and the HBO name is dead for the streaming version, they are still trying to decide if to keep it for the Cable version just to make it more confusing.

 

[KAB]

They are committing suicide. My sub runs out on the 20th this month, and it's bye-bye until after the next season of The Last of Us...then I'll catch up on House of Dragons (if there is one by then), Perry Mason, Plumbers, etc. Only need a month for that.

 

[Foxbat]

That’s what Mrs. Foxbat and I were thinking last night. We will get HBO for a month this summer to binge Perry Mason and I can finish Last of Us and anything else that might catch my interest.

 

[Bruce]

Just found this that shows HBO is adding less content and I believe my theory is correct, that by adding Discovery content to cover up the fact they are adding less and less HBO type content.

January 2022 — 316 new titles
January 2023 — 121 new titles

February 2022 — 121 new titles
February 2023 — 108 new titles

March 2022 — 76 new titles
March 2023 — 42 new titles

Already lost Universal new movies to Peacock, nothing to replace them
Lost Sony (Columbia) new movies to Netflix, nothing to replace them.

All they have left is Warner, not many of those because of money issues and every movie released in 2022 ( except for The Batman) flopped at the Box Office.

Then the cancelling of existing series and development stopped on others, even their 2 biggest hits, House of Dragons and Last of Us, were ordered to series and filmed before Discovery took over.

 

[SamCdbs]

Color me shocked. Less original content, more and bigger wads of reruns, services that are hodgepodges of disparate content unlikely to be focused upon the same sorts of people, long time subscribers understanding that the only way for the now unprotected consumer to keep ahead is binge and cancel AKA churn.

Yep. That is the flaw. This money losing service, like all of them, simply loses money because no one thing is ever popular enough to cover its production costs, so its easier to slowly throttle back on the original content and find a new wad of reruns to toss in and hype up.

TV in ten years looks a lot more like Pluto than Paramount.

 

[ncted]

Meh. There is too much new content to keep up with right now anyway -- at least if you have a job and/or kids. People are spending more time on TikTok and YouTube, so why overspend on content? If you are HBO, do you really need multiple prestige shows going at the same time? They really need just enough to discourage people from churning and binging. Bundling can accomplish this as well. Uptake on the Hulu/Disney+/ESPN+ $20 bundle has apparently been really good since the price hikes.

 

[navychop]

There is too much new content to keep up with right now anyway

QFT

 

[klang]

Quality is more important to me than quantity. We'll see how this plays out in the next year.

 

[Bruce]

Quality is more important to me than quantity. We'll see how this plays out in the next year.

Quality is important, but look at what they have done, quantity is down about 40%, lost two movie studios without providing a substitute, even canceling movies and shows just to get a tax benefit.

Development of new series is way down, so to cover up the fact of less HBO type shows, add a bunch of cheap programming crap I would never pay for.

And raise the price another $4 dollars to get the same quality as now (4K).

Lastly, get rid of the HBO name, something that has been around since the 70’s.

At least Paramount was smart enough to keep the Showtime name when they merged it with P+.

 

[NashGuy]

Lastly, get rid of the HBO name, something that has been around since the 70’s.

At least Paramount was smart enough to keep the Showtime name when they merged it with P+.

They're not getting rid of the HBO brand name. It looks like they're going to drop "HBO" from the name of the streaming service, branding it as simply "Max." But the cable channel will still be called HBO and the content they produce for it still dubbed "HBO Originals." There will still be an HBO branded content hub inside Max. In a way, this move will help preserve the purity of the HBO brand, so that it does not get extended in the public's mind to include all the non-HBO content inside Max. (As all that decidedly non-premium Discovery/HGTV/Food/TLC stuff gets added into the app, it makes even less sense to have HBO as part of the overall streaming service's name.)

Meanwhile, Paramount is actually renaming their premium cable network from Showtime to "Paramount+ with Showtime" (an awkward moniker that no normal person will actually call it). The premium ad-free version of their streaming service will go by the same name, while the basic with-ads version will still be known as just Paramount+.

The differences between the two go deeper than just branding. WBD is not only keeping their internal HBO team intact, they've locked down its CEO Casey Bloys and his team for several more years, while increasing the money given to them for new content development.

Meanwhile, Paramount has decimated their Showtime team, with that service being largely absorbed into other parts of the company. Longtime Showtime CEO David Nevins saw this coming, I'm sure, which is why he left awhile back (and then lined up a private equity firm to try to buy Showtime from Paramount for $3 billion, an offer that the company turned down). Expect to see fewer Showtime Originals going forward, since Paramount+ Originals will take up some of the budget and airtime. And it looks like most of the Showtime Originals they produce will be endless franchise iterations of past hits. I used to love Showtime, although I've never cared for Paramount+. At this point, it looks like something I can cross off my list of services to juggle.

 

[KAB]

I cancelled at end of last monthly term, 3/20. Been getting a come back/miss you/ you gotta see...EVERY DAY since. Don't want to opt out in case they decide to drop their pants for a while.

 

[mackie99]

HBO Max to Be Renamed ‘Max’ With Addition of Discovery+ Content, Launch Date and Pricing Revealed

Warner Bros. Discovery announced Max as the new name of its flagship streaming service as merges HBO Max with content from Discovery+.

variety.com

• Max Ad-Lite ($9.99/month or $99.99/year): Two concurrent streams, 1080p HD resolution, no offline downloads, 5.1 surround sound quality
• Max Ad Free ($15.99/month or $149.99/year): Two concurrent streams, 1080p HD, up to 30 offline downloads, 5.1 surround sound quality
• Max Ultimate Ad Free ($19.99/month or $199.99/year): Four concurrent streams, up to 4K Ultra HD resolution, 100 offline downloads, Dolby Atmos sound quality

 

[mackie99]

Warner Bros. Discovery Unveils ‘Max’: Everything Revealed at Combined HBO Max-Discovery+ Streaming Presentation

Warner Bros. Discovery finally revealed the plans (and confirmed the long-rumored name) for its new streaming service, Max, which will combine offerings from HBO Max and Discovery+ into one product…

variety.com

*Perrette noted that on May 23, a “large” segment of HBO Max users will be “seamlessly” transitioned to Max when they log into the app. For a small portion of customers, there will be a quick two-part sign in process to migrate over.

 

[ncted]

HBO Max to Be Renamed ‘Max’ With Addition of Discovery+ Content, Launch Date and Pricing Revealed

Warner Bros. Discovery announced Max as the new name of its flagship streaming service as merges HBO Max with content from Discovery+.

variety.com

• Max Ad-Lite ($9.99/month or $99.99/year): Two concurrent streams, 1080p HD resolution, no offline downloads, 5.1 surround sound quality
• Max Ad Free ($15.99/month or $149.99/year): Two concurrent streams, 1080p HD, up to 30 offline downloads, 5.1 surround sound quality
• Max Ultimate Ad Free ($19.99/month or $199.99/year): Four concurrent streams, up to 4K Ultra HD resolution, 100 offline downloads, Dolby Atmos sound quality

If my free sub from AT&T continues at the "Max Ad Free" tier, I'll be satisfied.