Dumbest rebranding ever. Wait... no, I take that back. Twiter -> X is the dumbest. But HBO -> Max is way up there.
this post was submitted on 03 Aug 2023
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A lot of the decisions that Zaslav has made as CEO are kind of mind boggling. The rebranding, canning movies that were already past post production (Batgirl), and removing shows from the streaming service (Westworld).
They're head scratching moments. You'd think, absent of these changes, they might not have seen such a dip in subscription numbers.
Then again, the subscription service streaming business model is shit, and some of these services are going to go under to satisfy their studio bottom lines...which are going to get another hit once the content slump from SAG-AFTRA & WGA strikes begins.
Too bad though, through all the shit, there is a lot of decently produced stuff out there.
Zaslav has been cutting costs so he and other Warner Bros Discovery executives can get multi-million dollar bonuses. It's not been widely reported, I was only able to find two articles.
Warner Bros. Discovery boosts David Zaslav pay incentives after company cuts costs
Warner Bros. Discovery Stock Upgraded by Analysts Bullish on Execs’ Free Cash Flow-Based Bonuses
Of all the decisions Zaslav has made, rebranding HBO Max to Max was actually the smartest one. HBO's brand was being diluted with a bunch of non-HBO content and it was going to have a negative impact in the long term. Not sold on the new name, but removing HBO's name from a bunch of lower quality content was actually a smart move.
I am one of those subscribers. I did not leave because of the name. I left because Zaslav took an axe to a lot of the content my family used the service for. And then even if that hadn't been enough to drive us off, they jacked up the prices so they could include a bunch of horseshit reality TV.
Did anyone unsubscribe just because the name changed?
If you take a look at the history of HBO Max's rebranding, there were several titles removed from the streaming service just right before the change. It's entirely possible, that removal of said titles preempted subscriber decline, or you could attribute it to the rebranding.
I believe a lot remains unseen at this point, and the CFOs comments could be considered valid; that churn and user overlap from Discovery+ could have played a part in the decline.
Not that the article title is misleading, there was a user decline after they rebranded.
With them removing so many animated shows (among many others too) I definitely can see the reason in not resubscribing. I'm only still on because I paid for yearly, I may cancel after. ~~HBO~~ Max doesn't seem to be coming out with as much content and there's less of it that I'm interested in.
Gunn's DC is mostly all I'm interested in now, as the HBO side of things is taking a backseat it seems. We'll see.
A more accurate headline would have been "HBO Max rebrand to Max forced users to download new standalone app after removing content and increasing prices, users refused".
Personally I'm going to watch Lovecraft Country, finish Last of Us, maybe check out White House Plumbers and wrap up Righteous Gemstones, then unsubscribe until a show I like has a new season. It's too expensive now.
It might be due to churn. If people leave for whatever reason and then new people don’t join because of a lack of name recognition that would explain it.