WarnerMedia/The WB Names New Streaming Service "HBO Max"; Chaos and Confusion Predicted to Ensue
Tuesday, July 9, 2019 | 10:28 a.m. PDT
Question for you…when you hear of youth-oriented shows like Friends, Gossip Girl, Pretty Little Liars, The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air and upcoming CW offerings like Batwoman and Katy Keene, what do you think of? Do you think of the adult-themed HBO channel? No. What about that raunchy Skinemax channel? Certainly not. All of these shows are owned by parent company WarnerMedia, more commonly associated with The WB brand. But in a purely *sensible* move, WarnerMedia has announced its forthcoming streaming service will call itself…wait for it…HBO Max.
Hmm…sounds like a bunch of tone-deaf execs were sitting in a boardroom when they came up with this name.
For only $14.99 per month, you too can stream a bunch of non-HBO shows. Of course, we have HBO shows too, but that isn’t our focus with this service. But let’s call ourselves HBO Max just for fun!
A number of problems we foresee:
1) Although WarnerMedia owns HBO, none of the aforementioned shows has ever aired on HBO.
2) HBO may have the most established WarnerMedia brand, but it's also an adult-themed brand that’s taken decades to build. Associating teen shows with an adult cable channel muddles the brand and confuses the public.
3) The “Max” in HBO Max might suggest a combo package of HBO and Cinemax, but Cinemax has absolutely nothing to do with the overpriced *deal* of $16.99/month that HBO Max promises to be.
4) In an era when cord-cutters are steering clear of cable and streaming civilians are avoiding broadcast shows like the plague, offering a collection of broadcast shows with a cable channel’s name clearly misses the mark.
The WB+ or WB All Access would have made for more sensible nomenclature, but alas, we can’t ever make things simple! Let’s give these execs the benefit of the doubt; maybe “+” and “All Access” are trademarked and protected by Disney+ and CBS All Access respectively. If that’s the case, they could have considered The WB Max, The WB Platinum, et cetera.
We digress…at the very least, take solace in knowing you’re getting a “continuation” of high-art drama Gossip Girl on this forthcoming streaming service! More on that later…
Now, let’s see which streamer we can cancel to make room for this one with its misnomer of a name.
