One of the most mind-boggling rebrandings of all-time has met its natural conclusion.
The geniuses over at Warner Bros. Discovery have come to their senses, and after two years of branding the company’s flagship streaming service simply as “Max,” the company is putting its prestige brand “HBO” back in the title.
According to CNBC’s Alex Sherman, the streaming service, which launched as HBO Max back in 2020, is returning to its original name.
“The powerful growth we have seen in our global streaming service is built around the quality of our programming,” Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav said in a statement. “Today, we are bringing back HBO, the brand that represents the highest quality in media, to further accelerate that growth in the years ahead.”
Warner Bros. Discovery finds itself on the precipice of major change. The company is reportedly eyeing a spinoff to its cable assets, which would include TNT, TBS, and truTV. It is also about to enter the first year in which it will not air live NBA games in nearly 40 years.
HBO Max joins an array of other media company namings and renamings from Upfront week. ESPN announced its new direct-to-consumer service will be named, simply, ESPN. Fox’s new streaming service will be called Fox One. And Comcast/NBCUniversal’s spinoff entity will be named Versant.
About Drew Lerner
Drew Lerner is a staff writer for Awful Announcing and an aspiring cable subscriber. He previously covered sports media for Sports Media Watch. Future beat writer for the Oasis reunion tour.