Dan GillmorUnclear why the new bosses think removing "HBO" from the streaming service name makes it more attractive, when in fact a key reason people subscribe is the HBO programming.
(Edited to be clear that this is about branding, not content.)
Jonathan HendryI think the new bosses are butthurt that HBO gets more respect than Discovery.
Or, perhaps the Discovery execs felt that “HBO Max” put HBO in a privileged position, while the Discovery channels would appear subordinate to HBO, just categories within “HBO Max”
Calcedony Prime@dangillmor Just another example of a new boss not understanding their product.
James Wells@dangillmor
Their e-mail flyer implied that Max is going to have all of the HBO Max content and more... Or as they said in the email "true crime, reality, food, and home" whatever that really means...
As long as they are not raising the price for the new content that I really don't want like "true crime, reality, food, and home" I will be fine.
@nikatjef I'll reword to be clear it's about branding, not content. And I agree re price. If they raise it I'm gone.
Karl Auerbach@dangillmor They probably have a few of the ATT marketing "mavens" still hanging around - the kind of ning-nings who do not realize that they are diluting their own trademark.
(Let us not forget that ATT types almost killed Sun Microsystem when they pushed Sun away from the Sparc architecture and towards the 3B-usless machines.)
Half Cocked Law@dangillmor why have a well-loved brand when you can be confused as Cinemax?
eva.schue@halfcocked @dangillmor it's truly mind bogglingly dumb
Chris Broome@dangillmor I’m old enough to remember when CineMax was routinely derided as “Skin-e-max”. The HBOMax cobranding may have lifted the name out the gutter, but it’s nowhere near HBO’s cachet.
Claudia Miles@dangillmor Ugh. I suppose that's that genius, David Zaslav.
Luke Kanies@dangillmor my bet is that this is a massive loser in the end.
But… I’m an enterprise software guy so I also will not be shocked to find I am woefully wrong.
Adrian Cockcroft@lkanies @dangillmor I’ve spoken to and heard stories about the management and tech stack of many of the streaming platforms over the years and HBO has more than its fair share of incompetence and horror stories, so this seems about right.
dennisaurus@dangillmor The whole Discovery takeover has been a train wreck crashing into a dumpster fire from the start. This one is going to end up in the textbooks as an example of epic failure.
Which won't help stop the next one.
der.hans@dangillmor it's a step towards the next change where they add Mad or Headroom or both
Shannon Clark@dangillmor my guess is the goal is protecting the HBO brand as the combined streaming service has a lot of non-HBO content.I guess they will reduce the HBO content in favor of their library of cheaper content from Discovery etc.
(So likely cutting back on their movie library and perhaps original HBO shows)
I have HBO max currently. Though with their recent Harry Potter announcement I plan on watching whatever shows they have that I care about and then cancelling my subscription next month