It all started with mere speculations, but the merger of HBO Max and Discovery Plus is now made official. A bigger streaming service, Max, has been announced by Warner Bros. in an event Wednesday. Max will be available starting on May 23, with a premium monthly subscription of $19.99 per month. Cheaper subscription options are also available for $9.99 and $15.99 a month.
New Streaming Service Combines the Best of HBO Max and Discovery Plus into One
As reported by Polygon, Max will combine the current TV shows and films available on HBO Max and Discovery Max. Therefore, subscribers should see the likes of "The Last of Us," "House of the Dragon," "Deadliest Catch" and "Succession" in Max's catalogue.
Warnes Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav made the official announcement of the HBO Max and Warner Discovery Plus consolidation, which has been decided to be called just "Max." Zaslav boasted that the combined streaming service that Max is "the one to watch."
"It's the one to watch because it's the place every member of the household can go to see exactly what they want at any given time," Zaslav said.
During the event, Warner Bros. Discovery also provided more information on the Max subscription plans. The top-tier option costs $19.99 per month and comes with 4K HDR Dolby Atmos for selected programming, 100 downloads for offline viewing, as well as four concurrent streaming. The cheapest option, which costs $9.99 per month, is an ad-supported plan with HD quality content and two concurrent streaming. Lastly, the standard ad-free subscription plan that costs $15.99 a month offers the same HD quality and two concurrent streams, but with 30 offline downloads.
The arrival of Max on May 23 means that the HBO Max app currently installed on devices will soon be replaced via automatic update. The profiles, watch histories and billing details of current HBO Max subscribers will be migrated to Max through the said update. On the other hand, the Discovery Plus app will stay as such since Max is a separate subscription offer. Discovery Plus's ad-supported subscription still costs $4.99 per month, while the ad-free option costs $6.99 per month.
Related Article: Warner Bros. Discovery To Merge HBO, Discovery Apps To Form 'Max'
Warner Bros. Discovery CEO Teases What's Coming in 'Max'
Per The Verge, the decision to give the name "Max" to the new app is for making it more like an "all-encompassing" streaming service that doesn't favor either of its parent apps. The collaboration of HBO Max and Discovery Plus has been planned for many years. It pushed WarnerMedia to terminate some of its TV shows and movies to give way to the partnership with HBO.
It was also the same time that Warner Bros. announced the plan for a single streaming app. Fast forward to 2023, Max was born, holding the rights for the big franchises such as "Harry Potter," "Sesame Street," "Looney Tunes," "The Lord of the Rings," "Game of Thrones," "Superman," "Batman," "Wonder Woman" and more.
Max subscribers should expect new original content based on the current franchises owned by Warner Bros. At the same event, the media company teased upcoming shows like "DC's The Penguin" and "The Big Bang Theory" spin-off series. There are also plans for a "Harry Potter" reboot and a new project based on "The Conjuring" universe. GoT fans will also be delighted for "Knight of Seven Kingdoms: The Hedge Knight" coming to Max soon.
