Do HBO’s homeowners have any freaking concept what they’re doing?

Max is altering its identify again to HBO Max, and very similar to The Joker in one in all Warner’s DC Universe movies, I can’t cease laughing.

Three years have handed because the mega-merger that birthed Warner Bros. Discovery and led to a brand new identify for its flagship streaming service. The Max model was supposed to emphasise a breadth of programming past the HBO catalog, however Warner’s executives now say the forthcoming rebrand (or unbrand) represents a return to high quality over amount.

This might be simpler to just accept if HBO’s homeowners had any credibility left. However over the previous few years, just about every part the Warner-Discovery merger was supposed to perform has failed. Now, the corporate can not articulate what it’s aiming for, aside from to squeeze somewhat additional revenue from a flailing enterprise. It’s as humorous as it’s unhappy.

Max’s damaged guarantees

Let’s return to when AT&T introduced it will spin off WarnerMedia into a brand new firm and merge it with Discovery. (The spin-off itself acknowledged that AT&T shouldn’t have purchased Warner within the first place, however that’s an entire different story.) Right here’s what the businesses’ 2021 press launch claimed the merger would accomplish:

• Improve investments in unique programming for its streaming providers.
• Improve programming choices “throughout its world linear pay TV and broadcast channels.”
• Create new alternatives for “under-represented storytellers and impartial creators.”
• Give viewers “progressive video experiences and factors of engagement.”

Right here’s what the corporate really did:

Paying extra for much less (once more)

Extra broadly, Warner Bros. Discovery promised to ship what CFO Gunnar Wiedenfels referred to as a “blowout DTC (direct-to-consumer) product.” At a 2022 business convention, Wiedenfels stated this service could be “one of the full, type of 4 quadrant, old-young-male-female merchandise on the market.”

Over time, the corporate did take some steps to bulk up Max’s choices. It introduced in Discovery’s catalog of actuality TV programming, launched a stay feed of CNN programming, and added stay sports activities from TNT and different Warner cable channels.

However with the identify reverting again to HBO Max this summer time, Warner says completeness is not the aim. President and CEO of streaming JB Perrette stated in a press launch that HBO Max will supply “not every part for everybody in a family, however one thing distinct and nice for adults and households.”

That probably means much less of what Max added over the previous few years. Its sports activities choices might be slim with out the NBA; CNN can have its personal separate subscription service, elevating questions on the way forward for Max’s CNN programming; and cable channels equivalent to Discovery might be spun off right into a separate firm.

“The issues subscribers need from us are HBO programming, scripted dramas, comedies, documentaries, the pay-one [licensing window] motion pictures, library motion pictures, and principally the Warner Bros. TV library,” CEO of HBO and Max Content material Casey Bloys stated.

Information, sports activities, and actuality programming are conspicuously absent from that assertion. Whereas Warner hasn’t introduced any quick modifications to HBO Max’s content material, the probably consequence is that you simply’ll be paying extra for much less.

Dangerous for enterprise, too

If it makes you’re feeling any higher, this hasn’t labored out for Warner Bros. Discovery’s enterprise, both.

Like different TV programmers, Warner has been leaning on income from conventional pay TV bundles to fund its forays into streaming. The merger was supposed to assist, because the mixed entity would have extra bargaining energy to extend pay TV carriage charges.

However with the lack of NBA rights and the general development towards hollowing out unique pay TV programming, these channels have turn out to be more and more nugatory. Carriage charges for TNT are actually flat or in decline, and cable firms equivalent to Comcast and Spectrum are getting Max thrown into their TV packages at no additional cost, hurting Warner’s streaming revenues. Final August, Warner took a $9 billion write-down on the worth of its TV property and will now look to spin them off; in the meantime, the corporate’s inventory value has fallen from $24.88 on the day of the merger to $9.05 as of this writing.

All this simply so we are able to get again to the place we began, with a service supposedly centered on high quality once more. Given what we’ve seen over the previous three years, you’d be justified in seeing this as simply an excuse to chop extra corners and fatten executives’ pay packages as a substitute.

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