There was a time when people talked about HBO, or HBO Max, among the many names it had, was synonymous with one thing: “TV series”. The brand built its prestige thanks to series such as The Sopranos, game of thrones, Two meters below the ground, blood brothers and other jewelry that remains essential to this day.
Quantity has never been above quality in the company and it is not something that anyone who signs has in mind thinking about the symbolic, and not literal, meaning of those three letters. You don’t subscribe to HBO Max thinking you’ll watch 800 series every month, but you’ll get something worth your money.
It was like that, at least, until Warner fell into dark times. Things still looked a little better under the banner of NODE&T (I always think about the AT-ATs of Star Wars when talking about that company), but the merger with Discovery Inc. A decline in the platform has begun, which honestly worries me.
And I’m not referring to the circus they set up with the names, although the bullfighter’s firefighter’s idea of ditching HBO to leave Max alone was worthy of Homer Simpson. Of course they say they wantregain brand prestige“When HBO Max came back a few months ago, and perpetrated what they perpetrated, it also had something to do with it…
Max expensive, “menox” to see
I’ve wanted to share this opinion for some time, but I was hoping that the platform was simply going through a bad time, like the rest of Warner, well, it’s not there to get excited about, unless with some box office success, and that’s saying a lot. However, The December 2025 premieres are like something to explode.
ZERO new fiction series. None. Documentaries, a special stand-up, a film and cinema that should already be on the platform or is licensed Sony Imageslike the movies Spider-Man.
The biggest thing is that they don’t reveal their most interesting debut, One Battle After Another, and we have to find out why Prime Video includes it as a highlight of HBO Max in its monthly newsletter, where it includes some premieres from the platforms that we can add as channels.
My blood boils paying half the standard plan for the lifetime promotion of the launch of HBO Max in Spain, so I don’t even want to imagine how the customers who They offer €10.99 or more month to monthwhich is already an effort by the national economy to have entertainment and, essentially, not provide anything really new.
I don’t mean to belittle the documentaries and others that come to HBO Max, but it’s VERY little for what the subscription costs, and the absence of any fiction series, living off income from This: Welcome to DerryIt’s an insult to the consumer’s intelligence. “What if you don’t like horror? “If you can handle it, check something else.”.
It’s as good a time as any to remember that HBO Max just raised its fees. Now you pay more per month for four documentaries, a special and films that aren’t even original on the platform. Until Filmas it is a more niche platform, it offers more variety. And I say that as a compliment to the Spanish streaming service.
These are uncertain times for Warner, but it’s no excuse to mistreat customers
Okay, yes, Warner Bros. Discovery is now in difficult-to-value territory due to its sales process and with sharks called Paramount, Comcast and Netflix waiting to take the final bite, but that’s not the users’ fault.
The general management of David Zaslav has been quite questionable, and I say that to be elegant. It’s true that he didn’t lead the company to full prosperity, but he also didn’t do much to give it momentum. Of course, canceling and breaking up the different divisions has been scary.
The result is a streaming platform that, far from being an absolute reference, saw how Apple TV ate the toast and became what HBO Max once was.
There are still important series on the platform, of course. I’d be lying if I said otherwise, but It’s not possible to survive with productions of eight or 10 episodes… or lessno matter how much you stretch your weekly releases, not without adding another series, even if it is of a lesser caliber.
It costs a lot to earn money to leave it in a service that, whether due to negligence or disastrous management, has foundered at a terrible rate in a matter of years. I hope this ends soon because I want to talk about this again. HBO Max with the feeling that things are well done.