HBO Max, Warner Bros-Discovery’s hit streaming service, is merging with Discovery+ and renaming as Max. The new name and rebranding officially launches May 23, 2023.
For soccer fans, it means that many of the US Men’s National Team and US Women’s National Team games are moving to Max. Until recently, select games have streamed on HBO Max featuring commentary by Luke Wileman.
The journey to get here has been a long one for soccer fans. When the news broke last year that rights to US Soccer games had been acquired, it was Turner Sports making the headlines. Then, later in the year, Turner’s parent company Warner Brothers merged with Discovery to create a colossal media giant.
But hold the phone. Members of the US Congress this week have asked the Department of Justice to investigate the merger due to concerns about anticompetitiveness.
HBO Max to relaunch minus HBO name
HBO is one of the most well-respected entertainment channels in the United States. With HBO, quality content has always been a constant. So by merging with Discovery+ and creating Max, we lose the HBO name but enter a new era where the app (and channel) are about more entertainment content.
Missing as a main focus in that is sports, which is largely ignored in most of the videos to promote the new Max brand.
Regardless, soccer is staying HBO Max, and will be available on Max too when the streaming service rebrands.
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Specifics of Max streaming service
To be clear, Max offers everything from HBO Max plus most of the titles from Discovery+. If you already subscribe to HBO Max, you don’t need to do anything. On May 23, it’ll automatically change to Max.
With pricing, there are three options available:
Max Ad Free: $15.99 per month
Max Ultimate Ad Free: $19.99 per month, and
Max Ad Lite: $9.99/month.
Max Ad Lite offers two concurrent streams, Max Ad Free has two HD streams, while Ultimate has four streams.
Change is a constant when it comes to streaming, especially when it involves HBO. In 2010, Warner Bros launched HBO Go. That was followed in 2020 by HBO Max. And now, we see the evolution to Max.
