Warner Bros. Discovery announced the comeback of its former name, HBO Max, earlier on Wednesday. The rebranding will officially take effect this summer.
The announcement was made during the company’s upfront presentation at Madison Square Garden, New York. WBD President and CEO David Zaslav confirmed the name will revert to HBO Max again.
David Zaslav, the President and CEO of Warner Bros. Discovery, said at the presentation: “The powerful growth we have seen in our global streaming service is built around the quality of our programming. Today, we are bringing back HBO, the brand that represents the highest quality in media, to further accelerate that growth in the years ahead.”
More insights on the forthcoming change were put forward by JB Perrette, President and CEO of Streaming, and Casey Bloys, Chairman and CEO of HBO and Max Content, who remarked, “We will continue to focus on what makes us unique – not everything for everyone in a household, but something distinct and great for adults and families. It’s really not subjective, not even controversial – our programming just hits different.”
Elaborating further, Casey Bloys stated, “With the course we are on and the strong momentum we are enjoying, we believe HBO Max far better represents our current consumer proposition. And it clearly states our implicit promise to deliver content that is recognised as unique and, to steal a line we always said at HBO, worth paying for.”
HBO Max was originally launched in 2020 when WarnerMedia was still under AT&T. The “Max” suffix was intended to denote the platform’s provision of a vast content range which includes reality shows, documentaries, children’s programming, films, and premium HBO content.
At the time HBO’s audience was considered small and primarily U.S.-based, a reason for it being positioned as a sub-brand within a larger streaming platform.
In 2023, following the divestiture from AT&T and the merger between Discovery Communications and WarnerMedia, the service was rebranded as "Max." This change also integrated content from Discovery+ into the platform.
Now, two years later, Warner Bros. Discovery is reversing that decision, reviving the old name HBO Max.
