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Max headroom: A breakdown of WBD’s Max pricing in the streamer’s seven new Asia markets
02 December 2024
Warner Bros Discovery (WBD) launched Max in five Southeast Asia markets, plus Hong Kong and Taiwan on 19 Nov with 12 platform partners and a direct subscription offering. The streamer carries all WBD’s brands. Local titles have not been prioritised, and hopes for a positive impact on the local content industry are so far lo-to-none. Max arrives in the seven markets around nine years after Netflix and Viu, about three years after Disney+, and about two and a half years after Prime Video rolled out localised video services.
Warner Bros Discovery’s Max streaming platform went live on 19 November with 12 platform partners across five markets in Southeast Asia, Hong Kong and Taiwan, as well as direct-to-consumer.
The seven-market launch includes Max’s first mobile-only plans in the world. These will be available in the Philippines and Indonesia, as part of the retail/direct-to-consumer Max product. In Thailand, the mobile plan is available only via telco AIS.
As expected, the rollout leverages WBD’s partnership network built up over more than two decades. Also as expected, the launch line up promotes no local content.
Two of the launch partners – HKBN and Smart – announced on 19 November are new to WBD’s streaming network and never offered Max precursor, HBO GO.
Most of the launch partners already offered the HBO GO streaming service, which has now been laid to rest. Other redundant services, such as HBO On Demand on Singapore’s Singtel, have been slowly retired and will disappear entirely by mid December. HBO GO contracts on other platforms, such as meWatch in Singapore, expired recently and were not renewed.
The direct-to-consumer platform does not offer free trials for any of the plans, although trials may be part of telco/platform bundles.
Max has already launched in Japan with U-Next and in New Zealand with Sky.
WBD APAC president, James Gibbons, said in the launch announcement that existing partnerships had been “reimagined” and that the company was “working with new partners across pay-TV and telco operators to support distribution”. Gibbo...
Warner Bros Discovery (WBD) launched Max in five Southeast Asia markets, plus Hong Kong and Taiwan on 19 Nov with 12 platform partners and a direct subscription offering. The streamer carries all WBD’s brands. Local titles have not been prioritised, and hopes for a positive impact on the local content industry are so far lo-to-none. Max arrives in the seven markets around nine years after Netflix and Viu, about three years after Disney+, and about two and a half years after Prime Video rolled out localised video services.
Warner Bros Discovery’s Max streaming platform went live on 19 November with 12 platform partners across five markets in Southeast Asia, Hong Kong and Taiwan, as well as direct-to-consumer.
The seven-market launch includes Max’s first mobile-only plans in the world. These will be available in the Philippines and Indonesia, as part of the retail/direct-to-consumer Max product. In Thailand, the mobile plan is available only via telco AIS.
As expected, the rollout leverages WBD’s partnership network built up over more than two decades. Also as expected, the launch line up promotes no local content.
Two of the launch partners – HKBN and Smart – announced on 19 November are new to WBD’s streaming network and never offered Max precursor, HBO GO.
Most of the launch partners already offered the HBO GO streaming service, which has now been laid to rest. Other redundant services, such as HBO On Demand on Singapore’s Singtel, have been slowly retired and will disappear entirely by mid December. HBO GO contracts on other platforms, such as meWatch in Singapore, expired recently and were not renewed.
The direct-to-consumer platform does not offer free trials for any of the plans, although trials may be part of telco/platform bundles.
Max has already launched in Japan with U-Next and in New Zealand with Sky.
WBD APAC president, James Gibbons, said in the launch announcement that existing partnerships had been “reimagined” and that the company was “working with new partners across pay-TV and telco operators to support distribution”. Gibbons said this included various models, such as app integration and having the Max service within the partner’s environment.
WBD brands on Max are HBO, Harry Potter, the DC Universe, Cartoon Network, Discovery, TLC, AFN, Food Network, ID and HGTV, as well as Max Originals. No local titles are included in launch publicity.
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