HBO? Max? HBO Max? The name change nobody asked for is happening again
Yep, Warner Bros. Discovery is undoing its 2023 rebrand and bringing the old name back. Max is officially becoming HBO Max once more.
In a move that is both surprising and oddly satisfying, the company says it is ditching the plain Max name and embracing the HBO identity again – the same one it dropped two years ago when it tried to appeal to a broader, family-friendly audience by bundling in content from Discovery, TLC and HGTV.
Now, they are admitting what a lot of people probably already felt – HBO still matters. A lot.
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.
– David Zaslav, President and CEO of Warner Bros. Discovery, May 2025
Turns out, even though subscribers pay $17/month, most of them tune in for the core HBO hits — think The White Lotus, The Last of Us, plus a few new movies and documentaries. And not much else, really.
HBO’s streaming journey has been all over the place: HBO Go (2008), HBO Now (2015), HBO Max (2020), Max (2023) and now – back again – HBO Max (2025). It’s been a bit of an identity crisis.
When Warner Bros. Discovery made the switch to Max, the idea was to protect the HBO brand from being diluted by all the reality TV content from Discovery. Plus, at the time, they argued that HBO was too adult-focused and might alienate viewers looking for more general, family-friendly stuff – like what Netflix offers.
But instead of solving a problem, the name change just caused confusion. People didn’t know if HBO was still around or being phased out. Internally and externally, it just didn’t land.
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.
– JB Perrette, President and CEO of Streaming, May 2025
Meanwhile, in the bigger streaming picture, over the past few years, Netflix has pulled way ahead in the streaming wars, leaving legacy media companies scrambling to keep up.
Netflix is still the leader when it comes to streaming.
According to Nielsen, a global leader in audience measurement, data and analytics, Netflix grabbed around 8% of all TV watch time in March – a massive lead. In comparison, Warner Bros. Discovery managed just 1.5%, which puts it slightly above Peacock but still trailing behind Disney’s streamers, Prime Video, Paramount, Roku, and even Tubi.
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