It’s official! For the third time Warner Bros executives changed the platform we barely started to get to love and use.

This time the change is now from HBO Max to Max. Why? Because Warner Bros Seems to beon a rocky road and after the merger between Warner Bros and Discovery, they needed a completly new platform, new prices and a new look. The market loved this idea which arrives May 23rd, that their stock fell 6 percent after the initial announcement. This is reports from Variety.com. Deadline has reported that a strike might be happening but David Zaslav is confident that they will reach an agreement.

This seems to another attempt to rebrand the whole concept of their streaming service concept. They bought a new company and changing the name. Would this also mean that they will change the name again if they buy another company, like Lionsgate or A24?

At least here’s the prices:

• Max Ad-Lite | $9.99/month or $99.99/year
  2 concurrent streams, 1080p resolution, no offline downloads, 5.1 surround sound quality

• Max Ad Free | $15.99/month or $149.99/year
  2 concurrent streams, 1080 resolution, 30 offline downloads, 5.1 surround sound quality

• Max Ultimate Ad Free | $19.99/month or $199.99/year
  4 concurrent streams, up to 4K UHD resolution, 100 offline downloads, Dolby Atmos sound quality

“The Max service is a wide-ranging mosaic of content that will be unmatched in the breadth, reach, and excellence of its offerings,” said Casey Bloys, Chairman and CEO, HBO and Max Content. “We are unique because we have the best-in-all-categories across the board by any measure – be they ratings, awards, fandom. We know we can satisfy any craving because we have the brands that people love. At Max, they will find what they want, when they want it.”

The official statement reads:

Newly announced titles include a Max Original Harry Potter series, a faithful adaptation of the beloved original book series by J.K. Rowling, who will serve as executive producer; a Max Original comedy series derived from The Big Bang Theory; an HBO Original “Game of Thrones” prequel A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms: The Hedge Knight;a Max Original drama series based on The Conjuring films; Magnolia Network’s Fixer Upper: The Hotel; Discovery Channel’s Survive the Raft; Max Original Peter & the Wolf from Bono; Adult Swim’s Rick and Morty: The Anime; Investigation Discovery’s Lost Women of Highway 20; Cartoon Network’s Tiny Toons Looniversity; and TLC’s Love & Translation.

Max also provided first looks today at additional highly anticipated upcoming titles including Max Originals The Penguin starring Colin Farrell; HBO Original drama series The Sympathizer, an espionage thriller and cross-culture satire based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel of the same name; HBO Original limited series True Detective: Night Country starring Jodie Foster and Kali Reis; HBO Original limited series The Regime starring Academy Award^®-winner Kate Winslet; Max Original six-part docuseries SmartLess: On The Road, following Jason Bateman, Will Arnett, and Sean Hayes as they take viewers on an exclusive behind-the-scenes look at the sold-out live tour of their podcast; and Max Original kids’ series Gremlins: Secrets of the Mogwai. In addition to Max original programming, a first look at HGTV’s four-part Barbie Dreamhouse Challenge hosted by Ashley Graham.

The press release also states this:

Highlights include:
 

• Premium Video Playback: A new video playback experience will deliver smooth and cinematic video to users, wherever and however they prefer to watch. Whether binging their favorites, watching offline on-the-go, or tuning in on Sunday nights for the latest episode of Succession, users can count on seamlessly diving into their preferred worlds.
   
• Personalization: Max will expand personalization beyond just the home page, offering a differentiated and high-performing experience for every user across the whole service.  By significantly increasing our investment in machine learning while maintaining an editorial voice, Max will deliver a unique human and machine approach that will help surface the best content for our users.
   
• More Prominent Kids Experience: At launch, Max will introduce a default kids profile for new subscribers along with accompanying parental controls. Parents can choose to customize settings and select to limit content for the kids profile by ratings: little kids (tv-y), big kids (tv-y7, tvy7-fv), big kids plus (tv-g, g), preteens (tv-pg/pg), or teens (tv-14, pg-13). Parents will also have the ability to set individual profile PINs to lock access to their adult profiles, as well as a parent code to lock their children inside of the Max kids experience. 
   
• Simplified Navigation: Max works harder so viewers don’t have to. Streamlined categories, improved content details pages, shortcuts, dedicated brand hubs and thematic content rails, make exploring the app and discovering new interests easier. The updated design coupled with a better personalization engine will help consumers quickly find and discover the best of what they are looking for.

• 4K UHD: The Ultimate Ad-Free tier of Max will have an expanded catalog of content  available in 4K UHD including key programming such as Game of Thrones, The Last of Us, Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, The Dark Knight Trilogy and more. All Warner Bros. movies released this year and going forward will also be available in 4K UHD when they arrive on Max following their theatrical windows.

Source: wbd.com