{"id":289011,"date":"2026-02-09T16:44:09","date_gmt":"2026-02-09T16:44:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/289011\/"},"modified":"2026-02-09T16:44:09","modified_gmt":"2026-02-09T16:44:09","slug":"hbo-max-reveals-uk-ireland-launch-date","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/289011\/","title":{"rendered":"HBO Max Reveals UK & Ireland Launch Date"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tHBO Max<\/a>\u2018s long-awaited launch in the UK and Ireland will take place on March 26.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe service will be offered directly to consumers and through launch partners Amazon and Sky<\/a> \u2013 mirroring how the service debuted in countries such as Australia. Warner Bros. Discovery<\/a> (WBD) had teased<\/a> a \u201clate March\u201d launch late last year.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe UK and Ireland\u2019s cheapest tier, Basic with Ads, is priced at \u00a34.99 ($6.79) per month and Standard with Ads is \u00a35.99. The standard tier with no ads is \u00a39.99 and the premium tier is \u00a314.99.<\/p>\n

\n\tAdditionally, TNT Sports subscribers will access their accounts through HBO Max, with the price remaining at \u00a330.99. Discovery+ will stay as the streaming home of the service until March 26. Discovery+ will remain a standalone service and is expected to move out of the Warner Bros. ecosystem when Discovery Global spins out as a standalone company later this year.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD)-owned HBO Max will be made available in the UK and Ireland through TVs, set-top boxes, streaming devices, mobiles, tablets, game consoles and platforms such as Android, EE\/BT TV, Fire TV, iOS, LG, PlayStation, Roku, Samsung, Virgin\u00a0TV\u00a0and Xbox.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe service is already available in 110 territories worldwide, is now bringing its content mix of HBO, Warner Bros. Pictures, Warner Bros. Television, DC Studios and Max originals, with Emmy-winning medical series The Pitt<\/a> toplining the launch slate.<\/p>\n

\n\tNew seasons of Euphoria and House of the Dragon are slated, along with Green Lantern DC series Lanterns and the upcoming Harry Potter TV show. Several upcoming originals are being qualified as \u201cco-exclusives\u201d with long-term local partner Sky.<\/p>\n

\n\tOn the movie front comes Superman,\u00a0One Battle After Another,\u00a0Sinners,\u00a0A Minecraft Movie\u00a0and\u00a0Dune: Part One\u00a0among others.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe launch is particularly seismic in the UK due to the long-running content pact between Warner Bros\/HBO and Sky, which to this point as been the only home of new HBO shows, even leading the launch of pay channel Sky Atlantic.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cAfter decades of delighting audiences in the UK and Ireland with our remarkable stories and brands, it\u2019s a huge thrill to finally bring it all together on HBO Max, and also offer it direct to all consumers,\u201d said JB Perrette, CEO and President of Global Streaming and Games at WBD.<\/p>\n

\n\tWBD has now completed the rollout of HBO Max in Europe. The service launched in the U.S. in 2020 and has since expanded into Europe, Asia and Latin America, and WBD says its streaming services are on track to hit 130 million-plus subscribers worldwide.<\/p>\n

\n\tSome market watchers have pointed to the slower rollout of HBO Max than rival global streaming services. However, Perrette told an audience of journalists at a launch event in central London that the service would benefit from \u201clast mover advantage\u201d \u2013 a phrase that\u2019s been used to explain launch times in countries such as Australia and Italy. Essentially, WBD\u2019s argument is HBO Max hits the market with several pricing tiers in place and a well-developed content strategy.<\/p>\n

\n\tPaolo Pescatore, analyst and founder at PP Foresight, who was in attendance at the launch event, said: \u201cThis is the first time HBO will be available in this key European market on a standalone basis, given its exclusive, long-standing relationship with Sky. Therefore, it is late to the streaming party, with its rivals having a huge head start in awareness, reach and subscriber bases.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cMake no mistake, this represents a key first step. The next phase of rollout will see additional partnerships with telco \u2013 and other \u2013 carriage partnerships and punchy bundles.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tHe added that Sky is \u201cpotentially one of the biggest losers\u201d from HBO Max\u2019s launch. \u201cLet\u2019s see what the company has up its own sleeve to mitigate against the loss of HBO exclusivity,\u201d he added. \u201cI fully expect to see the unveiling of new partnerships, features, pricing, and deeper, more integrated bundles.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tWBD remains in the throes of a takeover by streamer Netflix, and the question remains over what happens to HBO Max if that game-changing deal goes ahead. Perrette declined to directly address the takeover, but did say HBO Max could be \u201cuseful to Netflix\u2019s strategic ambitions\u201d thanks to its more niche focus.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"HBO Max\u2018s long-awaited launch in the UK and Ireland will take place on March 26. The service will…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":289012,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[93,3286,61,60,15640,29910,12481],"class_list":["post-289011","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-entertainment","tag-hbo-max","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-sky","tag-the-pitt","tag-warner-bros-discovery"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/289011","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=289011"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/289011\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/289012"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=289011"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=289011"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=289011"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}