Amongst all the excitement (and trepidation) of a new Harry Potter series set to air for a decade and a newly announced Game of Thrones spinoff, HBO Max has rebranded itself as Max. This decision comes after a merger between HBO’s parent company WarnerMedia and Discovery led the streaming site to add Discovery Plus titles to its streaming library. On May 23, the new Max rebrand will officially launch in the U.S. before expanding to other markets.
Warner Bros. Discovery hopes the new streaming service will attract a younger audience, as HBO carries a connotation of “more mature” content. With the added Discovery Plus titles, Max will have a good amount of family-friendly media and per the company’s press release, hopes to add around 40 new films and TV shows on a monthly basis — including new HBO series still in development (existing HBO titles will remain on the platform).
Current subscribers will be happy to know they won’t be charged more when Max officially launches. Via the Max website, subscribers will immediately have access to Max and new subscribers will have three price tiers to choose from. This includes two existing price tiers with one additionally added “Ultimate” tier.
Max ad-free and Ultimate ad-free, compared
While the subscription tiers have new names, two of them are essentially the same as their existing HBO Max counterparts. Max Ad-Lite is the lowest priced subscription option and will cost $9.99 per month ($99.99 if paid yearly). With Max Ad-Lite, users are able to stream on two devices simultaneously in 1080p and will have an ad-enabled experience. The second tier, Max Ad-Free will cost $15.99 per month ($149.99 if paid yearly) and has the same concurrent streaming limitations as Mad Ad-Lite but without ads while allowing up to 30 offline downloads.
As we noted earlier, these first two tiers currently exist for HBO Max so current subscribers will automatically transition to Max at launch. Additionally, Max has added a third Ultimate Ad-Free tier at $19.99 a month ($199.99 if paid yearly). This third tier will allow four concurrent streams in 4k Ultra HD resolution and allows up to 100 offline downloads. HBO Max subscribers who fall in the second tier (currently the top tier) have access to these Ultimate Ad-Free features and will continue to have them for six months after Max’s implementation. After the six months, subscribers will be asked to upgrade to Ultimate Ad-Free or lose those features.
The removal of HBO from Max’s branding has been met with some criticism but ultimately, things won’t be changing much for current subscribers. For now, enjoy your HBO Max subscription until Max officially launches on May 23.