WBD Upfront: Max to Become HBO Max Again
May 14, 2025
Come summer, the Max streaming service will once again be known as HBO Max.
The surprise move was announced May 14 during corporate parent Warner Bros. Discovery’s Upfront presentation to advertisers in New York City.
The rebranding back to the service’s original name comes less than two months after WBD unveiled a new color for Max’s logo, switching from blue to black-and-white, similar to the company’s legacy HBO branding.
The shortening of the name HBO Max to just Max came two years ago, when what was then WarnerMedia merged with Discovery to become Warner Bros. Discovery and integrated Discovery+ into HBO Max.
According to a WBD press release, “Returning the HBO brand into HBO Max will further drive the service forward and amplify the uniqueness that subscribers can expect from the offering. It is also a testament to WBD’s willingness to keep boldly iterating its strategy and approach — leaning heavily on consumer data and insights — to best position itself for success.”
WBD president and CEO David Zaslav in a statement said, “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.”
During the WBD Upfront at Madison Square Garden, JB Perrette, president and CEO of streaming, and Casey Bloys, chairman and CEO of HBO and Max Content, provided further details on the upcoming change.
“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,” Perrette said. “It’s really not subjective, not even controversial — our programming just hits different.”
Bloys added, “With the course we are on and 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 recognized as unique and, to steal a line we always said at HBO, worth paying for.”
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