2023-10-17 18:27:00
Gerhard Zeiler, chairman of Warner Bros. Discovery International, and Leah Hooper Rosa, director of the Europe streaming department, confirmed on October 16 the European launch of Max, during the International Market for Communication Programs (Mipcom) in Cannes. This platform, merger of HBO Max and Discovery+, home of prestigious HBO series (Game of Thrones,Succession, Les Soprano, Chernobyl, The Last of Us) and soon a new adaptation ofHarry Pottermarks the entry of a major competitor into the market.
Max is shaping up to be a general public offering. With its 96 million subscribers, it is placed just behind Netflix, Disney+ and Prime Video. The group owns HBO which produces very high quality series, but it also owns the DC film franchises, Harry Potter, Matrix, The Lord of the Rings, or King Kong or Mad Max. Which makes it a competitive platform with content that is as cutting-edge as it is popular.
This launch will take place in two stages, with a first salvo in the spring in the 22 countries that already offered HBO Max (Scandinavia, the Netherlands, the Iberian Peninsula and Eastern Europe, etc.), followed by Latin America, explained Leah Hooper Rosa. In France and Belgium, the platform will arrive later in the year, she added, without specifying a date. However, the magazine Variety mentioned a launch in the summer of 2024 in France, which Warner Bros. does not comment on. Discovery, requested by AFP.
The Olympics and a first tricolor production
The arrival of the platform on the French market coincides with the start of the Olympic Games, which Max will be able to broadcast live via the Eurosport portfolio which also broadcasts the tennis grand slam competitions, and the Grand Tour cycling races (Tour of France, Tour of Italy, Tour of Spain, etc.). In Europe, Max will be “the home” of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, said Leah Hooper. A bargain carefully considered by the American giant.
In addition, the firm announced in April the filming of its very first tricolor production designed specifically for Max, The Mythomaniac of the Bataclan, a mini-series inspired by a true story with Laure Calamy in the lead. This fiction is expected from August on the platform.
The launch of HBO Max in the country of the language of Molière had been postponed without a planned date, after the giant merger in 2022 between WarnerMedia, parent company of HBO and CNN, and Discovery (Eurosport). In the meantime, a paid Warner pass accessible via the Amazon platform, Prime Video, has since March allowed access in particular to HBO series which disappeared in January from the OCS pay channel bouquet, their historic broadcaster in France.
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