{"id":119308,"date":"2025-09-04T22:26:07","date_gmt":"2025-09-04T22:26:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/119308\/"},"modified":"2025-09-04T22:26:07","modified_gmt":"2025-09-04T22:26:07","slug":"why-hbo-is-rebranding-everything","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/119308\/","title":{"rendered":"Why HBO Is Rebranding Everything"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tOn July 9, 2025, HBO<\/a> Max finally became \u201cHBO Max<\/a>\u201d again \u2014 we can just forget those weird two years where it was just \u201cMax.\u201d (Though apparently Twitter can\u2019t<\/a>.)<\/p>\n

\n\tAnd now, less than two months later, six of HBO\u2019s seven (or so \u2014 the number expands and contracts across various markets) linear television channels have been renamed<\/a>: HBO2 is now\u00a0HBO Hits, HBO Signature is now\u00a0HBO Drama, HBO Zone is now\u00a0HBO Movies, MoreMAX\u00a0is now\u00a0Cinemax<\/a>\u00a0Hits, ActionMAX is now\u00a0Cinemax Action and 5starMAX is now\u00a0Cinemax Classics. <\/p>\n

\n\tThose latter changes are also reflected on the former: the updated titles have made their way to HBO Max\u2019s live in-app \u201cChannels\u201d (on select plans), which enables subscribers\u00a0to stream live HBO programming via simulcasts.<\/p>\n

\n\tYes, HBO is out here rebranding everything<\/a>. It\u2019s kind of silly and there are definitely jokes to be made about David Zaslav overworking his branding\/marketing teams \u2014 until you realize pretty much all of these platforms had bad names. (One was his and JB Perrette\u2019s doing, most were not.)<\/p>\n

\n\tIn 2023, following the April 2022 formation of Warner Bros. Discovery (the ultimate rebrand as the merger of WarnerMedia, formerly of AT&T, and Discovery, Inc.), the established streamer HBO Max was downgraded to Max. The thinking at the time was that the \u201cHBO\u201d brand was selling the service, which also included Discovery and Turner programming as well as DC, a bit short. In halving the name, however, WBD also cut out the platform\u2019s crown jewel from the title. HBO Max itself \u2014 the first time \u2014 was a rebrand of HBO Go, the successor to HBO on Broadband.<\/p>\n

\n\tIn announcing the HBO Max rebrand (de-brand?) in May 2025, HBO chairman and CEO Casey Bloys said, \u201cWe believe \u2018HBO Max\u2019 far better represents our current consumer proposition. And it clearly states our implicit promise to deliver content that is recognized as unique and, to steal a line we always said at HBO, worth paying for.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cReturning the HBO brand into HBO Max will further drive the service forward and amplify the uniqueness that subscribers can expect from the offering,\u201d a company statement added.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\u00a0Cinemax\u2019s \u2018The Knick\u2019 in 2014.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tMary Cybulski\/Cinemax\/Courtesy Everett Collection<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cHBO2\u201d was fine if not especially original. The channel consists of HBO reruns and runoffs, basically, which is perfectly implied by the name. It needn\u2019t be changed, but it has been \u2014 a few times now. For a little while, HBO2 was \u201cHBO Plus.\u201d (Boy would an \u201cHBO Plus\u201d cable channel have been confusing in the days of Disney+, Discovery+, ESPN+, Apple TV+, Paramount+, BET+ and so on.)<\/p>\n

\n\tNow, \u201cHBO Hits\u201d is \u2026 fine. Similarly, \u201cHBO Signature\u201d was not an insane name, but \u201cHBO Drama\u201d is marginally better in so much as it is more directly descriptive. Its original name, \u201cHBO3,\u201d was OK too, though its tertiary nature couldn\u2019t have been more on display. HBO Zone is now \u201cHBO Movies,\u201d which is a far superior name.<\/p>\n

\n\tLess than a month ago, we still had an \u201cHBO Family\u201d channel. Not anymore. We still have HBO Comedy and HBO Latino \u2014 no rebrand there necessary.<\/p>\n

\n\tToday\u2019s mass-rebrands are \u201csolely a name change to more clearly reflect the linear offering,\u201d an HBO spokesperson told The Hollywood Reporter. Programming on the respective networks is not being changed.<\/p>\n

\n\tCinemax (and its Spanish-language sister, Cinem\u00e1x) never really left us, but the names \u201cMoreMAX\u201d and \u201cActionMAX\u201d were never fully clear about their affiliation to the main Cinemax channel. Guess what they once were called? \u201cCinemax 2\u201d and Cinemax 3,\u201d respectively. And what the hell even was \u201c5starMax\u201d? It sounds like the worst boy band of the \u201890s \u2014 that one really had to go.<\/p>\n

\n\tAt a time when Paramount has basically buried its Showtime brand<\/a>, amplifying Cinemax \u2014 the former third wheel to HBO and Showtime \u2014 is a smart call. Of course, none of these ancillary HBO and Cinemax channels really move the needle. HBO and HBO Max subscribers pay their $10-$21 (give or take for linear) for the prestige dramas and the Max Originals \u2014 and yes, they\u2019re still called that\u2026for now.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"On July 9, 2025, HBO Max finally became \u201cHBO Max\u201d again \u2014 we can just forget those weird…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":119309,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[64,63,134,9054,17300,427],"class_list":{"0":"post-119308","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tv","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-entertainment","11":"tag-hbo","12":"tag-hbo-max","13":"tag-tv"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/119308","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=119308"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/119308\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/119309"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=119308"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=119308"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=119308"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}