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Warner Bros. Discovery promises Max will be a more personalized, technically improved streaming service

With next month’s arrival of the new streaming service “Max” from Warner Bros. Discovery, the company is also promising a revamped product experience with an expanded feature set, improved recommendations and better performance. The new service, which combines HBO Max and Discovery+ content into one offering, will gain an updated user interface that’s delivered by way of a largely seamless transition for existing HBO Max subscribers across most platforms.
However, Discovery+ subscribers will be able to continue to watch in their standalone app, if they choose, the company noted during today’s press event where it introduced the new service and its many forthcoming originals, including a new Game of Thrones series.
Of particular interest, the company openly admitted that its current HBO Max service has a number of technical shortcomings that it now aims to address with the move to Max.
“As we started this journey 12 months ago, we did a thorough assessment of our two streaming businesses, as well as the technology and products of each. And we realized that, while both were solid, they also each had important shortcomings,” said JB Perrette, CEO and president of global streaming and games, while speaking to the gathered crowd.
“In summary, we needed to do the basics much better,” he said, before spinning his mea culpa into an odd form of praise by adding, “if we got this far with some suboptimal features and experiences, imagine what we will do when we get more of it right!”
That’s certainly an interesting way to sell things, we’d say.
Perrette said the new Max service would address several key business objectives, including user engagement, retention, more regular viewership and easier, more personalized discovery of the content offerings, to name a few.

Warner Bros. Discovery to launch ‘Max’ service starting at $9.99/mo on May 23

Though the company had announced an expanded slate of new original programming earlier in the event, including new series like Big Bang Theory and True Detective spinoffs, a live-action Harry Potter, DC Comics titles like “The Penguin,” and others, the exec also acknowledged that the product itself has to do a better job at surfacing its content for subscribers.
“HBO Max has an amazing depth of content, but it’s largely unexplored because we don’t make it easy enough to find,” he said. As an example of this problem, he noted that three-quarters of its viewership came from the home screen only, while on Discovery+ the majority of usage came from other screens deeper in the app. In addition, four times as much content drives the majority of viewership on Discovery+ than on HBO Max.
Image Credits: Warner Bros. Discovery
One might argue that’s because of the nature of the programming on the respective services, where Discovery+’s lifestyle content drives repeated viewing, perhaps, compared with flagship series like “Game of Thrones” that are viewed in real time, but are not necessarily the types of shows to be rediscovered later and then rewatched. However, the company is betting that product changes will be able to improve these metrics around discoverability.
For starters, the revamped app will feature a new content navigation menu at the top that will help consumers more easily find the series and movies, as well as the new releases they may want to watch. Across the app, the company promises streamlined categories, improved content detail pages, shortcuts, dedicated brand hubs and thematic content rails, to make the app easier to explore.
HBO’s brand will still have a prominent position in this new interface, too, but will be showcased alongside the company’s other top brands that will serve as gateways to their respective content.
There will also be genre hubs to dive into different types of content and a new quick shortcut that lets users save content to a list for later viewing.
For users on the new Ultimate Ad-Free tier, the service will feature an expanded catalog of 4K UHD content, including across programming like “Game of Thrones,” “The Last of Us,” “Harry Potter,” “Lord of the Rings,” “The Dark Night” trilogy and others. This catalog will expand to include all the Warner Bros. movies released this year and in the future.
Image Credits: Warner Bros. Discovery
Plus, individual user profiles will for the first time offer more personalized experiences where users are recommended new things to watch based on their prior habits and viewing, via things like “because you watched” recommendations, suggestions of what to watch next that appear when you finish a series or movie and immersive hero images tailored to the end user. This personalized experience will extend beyond the home page, too, so users are seeing tailored recommendations across the full service.
A combination of machine learning and human editorial curation will help to drive these recommendations, Perrette explained.
Parents will be able to configure their kids’ profiles, including through the use of parental controls. While that’s not new, the revamped Max will introduce a default kids profile for its new subscribers, with options for parents to set the profile to either little kids, big kids, big kids plus, pre-teens or teens — an expanded set of kids’ tiers that goes beyond those offered by some rival services, where the “kids” experience is often aimed at younger school-age children. This tends to frustrate older kids, and teens when they outgrow cartoons and other “kids” content, but aren’t yet old enough for more adult fare, like much of what HBO offers.
Under the hood, the company touted other technological improvements focused on user retention, performance and stability.
For example, Max will proactively alert customers about failed payments through notifications and on and off-product messages, including for the first time in-app alerts on connected TVs. It also added support for PayPal as another payment option and made it easier for its marketing teams to run promotional pricing without requiring weeks of engineering work.
Image Credits: Warner Bros. Discovery
The company additionally promised updates to its core architecture to deliver “faster, more reliable, and more efficient performance.” Among the changes, Max will offer a new connected TV sign-in process where users don’t have to type in their credentials with their remote and a more dependable downloads experience.
“…We maniacally focused on app performance to get our customers watching their content as fast as possible,” Perrette said. “So app start times, video start times, and the general navigation response times will be 20 to 30% faster, depending on which device you’re using.”
The exec said HBO Max app customers will be automatically updated to Max on May 23 when the shift is made. On most platforms, this update will happen automatically, but others will prompt users who open the HBO Max app to download the new Max app instead. It will then only be “two clicks” to continue watching, Perrette noted, as usernames, passwords, profiles, watch histories, watch rails and billing will carry over automatically. Discovery+ subscribers won’t be forced to transition apps but will be prompted at different times to try the new Max app.
Image Credits: Warner Bros. Discovery
The new service will offer three pricing tiers, starting at $9.99 per month for ad-supported, $15.99 per month to go ad-free and $19.99 per month for ad-free viewing with 4K UHD and Dolby Atmos. The latter two tiers also include offline downloads but are limited to either 30 or 100 downloads, respectively. The top-tier service also includes four concurrent streams instead of just two.

‘Game of Thrones’ fans are getting a new spinoff based on characters Dunk and Egg

 
Warner Bros. Discovery promises Max will be a more personalized, technically improved streaming service by Sarah Perez originally published on TechCrunch
Warner Bros. Discovery promises Max will be a more personalized, technically improved streaming service

Warner Bros. in talks about a Harry Potter TV series for HBO Max

Warner Bros. is in talks about a Harry Potter Max Original series on HBO Max, a source with knowledge of the matter confirmed to TechCrunch. The company is nowhere near striking a deal yet, the source tells us.
Bloomberg was the first to report about the potential deal. Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) CEO David Zaslav and HBO chief Casey Bloys have apparently been trying to convince author J.K. Rowling to approve the series.
Potterheads everywhere will likely be excited about a future series, being that Harry Potter is overall the best-selling book series, with over 600 million copies sold. In total, the eight films based on the series generated $7.7 billion in worldwide ticket sales.
The Harry Potter brand has turned into many products and spinoffs, with the most recent being the video game Hogwarts Legacy, which Warner Bros. published in February and has sold more than 12 million copies so far. There’s also a stage production called “Harry Potter and the Cursed Child” that had its official opening night on June 19, 2022.
Warner Bros. has wanted to do more with the popular book series for a long time. The company previously said it would take “full advantage” of its IP, including Harry Potter, noted Zaslav during the Q4 2022 earnings call.
“I believe that we have an overwhelming advantage in the marketplace with the IP that we own,” Zaslav said. “We have the strongest hand in the industry, with the most complete portfolio of assets and globally renowned franchises, personalities and storytelling IP across sports, news, nonfiction and entertainment, in virtually every region of the globe and in every language.”
Other plans include new films based on The Lord of the Rings franchise, a prequel series for Stephen King’s “It,” and more “Game of Thrones” projects. WBD has also brought on filmmaker James Gunn and producer Peter Safran to reboot the DC Universe.
Next week, the company will hold a press conference to announce its new streaming strategy, which will see a new streaming service that combines HBO Max and Discovery+ content.

Warner Bros. Discovery plans to keep Discovery+ as a standalone streaming service in the US

Warner Bros. in talks about a Harry Potter TV series for HBO Max by Lauren Forristal originally published on TechCrunch
Warner Bros. in talks about a Harry Potter TV series for HBO Max

Amid growing competition, Paramount+ and Showtime are combining in the US

Nearly a year after ViacomCBS announced its rebrand to become Paramount, the company is now making a major change to its portfolio with today’s news that it will be fully integrating Showtime into Paramount+ — the streamer known in previous years as CBS All Access. The integration will include both streaming and linear platforms, the company noted, meaning Paramount+ will now be renamed “Paramount+ with Showtime,” while the Showtime linear TV network will also be renamed the same in the U.S.
This sort of consolidation was bound to happen, given today’s competitive streaming environment where even Netflix has seen tougher quarters and has had to embrace advertising in order to further grow its business. There are many options for consumers to choose from in the streaming market, and a stand-alone service like Showtime simply doesn’t have the breadth and depth of content required to stand on its own.
Showtime first launched its over-the-top streaming service in 2015, six years before CBS All Access was rebranded to Paramount+. However, Showtime is not as popular as its younger sister, Paramount+, which makes up the bulk of the company’s direct-to-consumer subscriber base. The streaming service reported 46 million subscribers in Q3 2022. Paramount itself has almost 67 million global subscribers across Paramount +, Pluto TV, Showtime, Noggin and BET+.
The integration isn’t just aimed at boosting Paramount+’s profile on the market; it will also help the linear Showtime network. Paramount said select Paramount+ original programs will soon join the TV network, which provides incremental value for Showtime’s distributors and potentially, more linear customers as well.
The changes will roll out later this year and will involve only the premium tiers at Paramount+, the company clarified. This will allow Paramount+ to better compete agains other premium streamers, like HBO Max, while also differentiating its streaming service by offering a combination of original and premium content, linear channels, live news and sports and Paramount Pictures movies.
Similar to HBO, Showtime’s content tends to have more mature themes, which appeals more to a certain demographic beyond the general market Paramount+ targets. However, both services would benefit from a combined user base and the ability to cross-promote titles.
“This new combined offering demonstrates how we can leverage our entire collection of content to drive deeper connections with consumers and greater value for our distribution partners,” wrote Paramount CEO Bob Bakish in a memo to employees, announcing the news. “This change will also drive stronger alignment across our domestic and international Paramount+ offerings, as international Paramount+ already includes Showtime content. And, very importantly, this integration will unlock operational efficiencies and financial benefits across our broader portfolio,” he said.
Alongside the news, Paramount announced that Chris McCarthy will continue to lead the Showtime studio and oversee network operations for the linear channel. He will also work closely with Tom Ryan, who will oversee the “Paramount+ with Showtime” streaming business.
The company warned that other changes to programming may come about with this transition. For example, in order to focus on building franchises out of Showtime’s hit shows, it will divert investment from underperforming areas that “account for less than 10% of our views.” That means, likely, some cancellations or removals are in order. Paramount says it has begun those discussions with its production partners but didn’t announce which shows are being cut or are being elevated by way of these changes.
The newly merged Paramount+ with Showtime service will be in direct competition with Warner Bros. Discovery, which has 94.9 million global subscribers across HBO, HBO Max and Discovery+. In September, during Goldman Sachs’ Communacopia + Technology Conference, Bakish confirmed that a merger had been discussed internally.
“It shouldn’t surprise you that [we’re looking] to have optionality in the future…Quite frankly, if we weren’t having that conversation, you should fire all of us because we should have that conversation,” Bakish had said.
In August 2022, Paramount+ launched an in-app Showtime bundle for U.S. customers that wanted to upgrade to a plan that included both Paramount+ and Showtime. Paramount had already integrated Showtime content with its streaming product in international markets, as a precursor to the company’s domestic integration plans.
Amid growing competition, Paramount+ and Showtime are combining in the US by Sarah Perez originally published on TechCrunch
Amid growing competition, Paramount+ and Showtime are combining in the US

HBO/HBO Max and Netflix are top streamers among Golden Globe nominees

Nominations for the 2023 Golden Globe Awards were announced this morning, with HBO, HBO Max and Netflix tied for the lead in the TV category, getting 14 noms each. Major contenders include HBO’s “The White Lotus,” “House of the Dragon” and “Hacks,” as well as Netflix’s “Wednesday,” “Ozark” and “The Crown.”
While the two streaming giants are neck and neck overall, HBO Max had one more TV show on the list. Seven HBO series had a total of 14 nominations, whereas just six Netflix shows made the cut.
HBO/HBO Max shows include “The White Lotus” with four noms, “Hacks” with three, “House of the Dragon” with two, as well as “Euphoria,” “The Staircase” and “The Flight Attendant” with one nomination each. “Barry” also made the nominee list with two.
Netflix, on the other hand, received four Golden Globe nominations each for “The Crown” and “Dahmer – Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story,” three for “Ozark,” two for its latest hit “Wednesday” as well as “Better Call Saul.” Plus, “Inventing Anna” actress Julia Garner was nominated for best performance by an actress in a limited series.
On the film side, Netflix had nine nominations, including movies “Blonde,” “Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery,” Guillermo del Toro’s “Pinocchio,” “Where the Crawdads Sing,” “The Good Nurse,” “White Noise” and German film “All Quiet on the Western Front.” HBO Max’s parent-company Warner Bros. nabbed three Golden Globe noms for its biographical film “Elvis.”
Last year, Netflix had the most Golden Globes nominations out of any streamer, with 17 total. The company received its first-ever Best Motion Picture (Drama) Golden Globe for “The Power of the Dog.”
HBO and HBO Max earned 10 nominations in the TV category of the 2022 Golden Globes. Earlier this year, the company earned the most Emmy wins overall for shows like “Succession,” “Euphoria” and “Hacks.”

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Hulu’s TV shows performed well this year, with 10 Golden Globe nominations. Hulu series that were nominated include “Pam & Tommy,” “The Bear,” “The Dropout,” “The Patient” and “Only Murders in the Building.”
Selena Gomez, who stars in the hit Hulu series “Only Murders in the Building,” picked up her first-ever Golden Globe nomination for acting. Her co-stars, Steve Martin and Martin Short, are also nominated for best performance. In total, “Only Murders in the Building” has four noms.
Earlier this year, Hulu broke its own record by getting 58 Emmy nominations, which was mainly thanks to its series “Only Murder in the Building” and “Dopesick.
The FX series “Abbott Elementary” was by far the most nominated TV show, with five noms in total. The workplace comedy has its streaming rights shared between HBO Max and Hulu.
Apple TV+ pulled six TV noms, including Best Drama Series for “Severance” and Best Limited Series for “Black Bird.” The two shows got three nominations, respectively.
Disney had 3 films nominated, including “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever,” “Avatar: The Way of Water” and “Turning Red.” The Disney+ show “Andor” was nominated for Best TV Actor with Diego Luna, who plays the lead role as Cassian Andor. The company had six total nominations across four titles.
Both Paramount Pictures and Universal Pictures pulled seven films on the Golden Globes nominees list, which will all likely premiere on their respective streaming services, Paramount+ and Peacock. Paramount’s “Top Gun: Maverick” was nominated for Best Picture (Drama) and Best Song and is set to make its streaming debut on Paramount+ on December 22.
“Yellowstone,” a Paramount Network series that streams on Peacock, was nominated for Best TV Actor (Kevin Costner, who plays John Dutton).
Dark comedy “The Banshees of Inisherin” was the most nominated film for this year’s Golden Globes, with eight nominations. It will stream on HBO Max starting tomorrow, December 13. Other major films in contention for awards are “Everything Everywhere All at Once,” “The Fabelmans,” “Tár,” “Babylon” and “Triangle of Sadness.”
NBC and Peacock will stream the 80th Annual Golden Globe Awards on January 10, 2023. This year marks the ceremony’s return to television after it was criticized for lacking diversity. The Hollywood Foreign Press Association (HFPA) noted in today’s announcement that this year is the first time there were 103 international voters, making the total Golden Globe Awards voting body “51.8% racially and ethnically diverse,” HFPA wrote.

HBO and HBO Max nabbed the most wins at this year’s Emmy Awards

HBO/HBO Max and Netflix are top streamers among Golden Globe nominees by Lauren Forristal originally published on TechCrunch
HBO/HBO Max and Netflix are top streamers among Golden Globe nominees

MTV partners with Unrd to create a mobile version of ‘Ghosted: Love Gone Missing’

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Mobile storytelling startup Unrd is making its first move into adapting existing intellectual property — specifically “Ghosted: Love Gone Missing,” an MTV reality series about ghosting (the dating practice, not anything supernatural).
Until now, Unrd (pronounced “unread”) has created original crime, horror and romance stories that are told through characters’ phones, through content like text messages, video footage and more.
Starting next week, on November 16, the app will feature a version of “Ghosted” that — unlike the TV show — is scripted, as users explore characters’ text messages, photos and video calls to discover why they’ve been ghosted. They’ll even get to vote on whether the characters should “ghost” or “make up” before they see the stories’ ending (their votes won’t affect the outcome).

MTV Head of Digital Rory Brown told me that this was a “very close collaboration” between MTV and the Unrd team, led by CEO Shib Hussain.
“This is the first time they’ve partnered with an already established IP — but that didn’t scare us at all, to be that first media partner that they worked with,” Brown said. “There was a strong point of view on our side of the house how to keep it true to the existed format, while the Unrd team helped us reimagine it, and our collaboration met in the middle of that Venn diagram.”

Image Credits: Unrd

He also argued that while interactivity can be “a bit of a buzzword in the industry,” Unrd isn’t focusing on “interactivity for interactivity’s sake.” Instead, the aim is to create “a more immersive experience for the user.”
Unrd will feature three stories tied to “Ghosted,” each of them unfolding over six days.
“The key thing that we do different is this notion of real time,” Hussain said. “You can’t just binge it and consume every story in one day. You’ve got to wait with the character for the next message. That’s more immersive, and it also builds that tension and excitement amongst users as well.”
Brown noted that these Unrd stories are launching during a break in the second season of “Ghosted.” The hope is that they’ll keep existing fans engaged while creating new fans as well.
“At MTV, we’re always going to keep looking at ways to test the elasticity of IP,” he said. “I think Unrd is one way to do that. We’re talking to other partners, but Shib and his team have been fantastic to work with and we’d love to keep the relationship going.”

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MTV partners with Unrd to create a mobile version of ‘Ghosted: Love Gone Missing’