READ TODAY\u2019S FULL MEDIA INSIDER COLUMN HERE<\/a><\/p>\nHBO Max\u2019s Australian experience<\/p>\n
HBO Max has been available as a standalone service in Australia since March last year, after years of its content being licensed through Foxtel\u2019s streaming platform. <\/p>\n
Despite Foxtel losing HBO Max content from its own menu, it and Warner Bros Discovery struck a commercial deal that means HBO Max, as a standalone and separate platform, is still available to Foxtel subscribers \u2013 for no extra charge.<\/p>\n
![\"Warner]()
Warner Bros Discovery Apac managing director Michael Brooks.<\/p>\n
Brooks said he had been hoping for a similar deal in New Zealand.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe indicated many months ago that we were always planning to go direct to consumer \u2013 that was a clear conversation that we had with Sky. <\/p>\n
\u201cIn Australia, we had a similar situation with Foxtel, whereby we had a long-standing partnership. The content was licensed there for many years, and we managed to work with them to create a wholesale hard bundle where essentially their customers would be able to get uninterrupted access to HBO content.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe were certainly happy to have the same conversation and create a similar deal with Sky, but they made the decision to go in a different direction.\u201d <\/p>\n
A Sky spokeswoman said yesterday: \u201cOur decision not to pursue a co-exclusive arrangement for HBO Max content was grounded in data and our insights into what our customers watch and value. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve chosen to invest in a diverse range of content that we know our customers love, through a broad range of studio partnerships, including Paramount, BBC, Studiocanal and Sony to name a few.\u201d<\/p>\n
According to Sky TV\u2019s latest annual report, Neon subscription numbers sat at 259,409 in 2025 \u2013 up slightly on its 2024 numbers but down on the 318,000 subscribers in 2023.<\/p>\n
The Sky spokeswoman said the company would share updated details on Neon\u2019s performance at its full-year results. \u201cThere are no changes to our pricing tiers.\u201d<\/p>\n
Media Insider was tipped off last October that Sky and HBO were parting ways and that it was an unhappy divorce, especially on the Sky side. <\/p>\n
Sky, for months, refused to confirm or comment on that scenario \u2013 there\u2019s no doubt that losing the HBO content is a blow.<\/p>\n
Brooks is still diplomatic. \u201cWe\u2019ve got an excellent relationship with Sky, we always have had, that\u2019s not going to change based on this, but they made their decision based on their own business needs, I guess.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"Olivia]()
Olivia Cooke and Emma D’Arcy in The House of the Dragon.<\/p>\n
In Australia, HBO Max exceeded all expectations in its first year, achieving positive ebitda earnings. Brooks called that a \u201cremarkable\u201d achievement.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe weren\u2019t focused on at the start, I can tell you. Obviously, we want to be a profitable business \u2013 it\u2019s not just about subscriber numbers; profitability is a huge focus for us as a global streaming business.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut we looked at that ability to be in an ebitda positive place in year one and thought, okay, that\u2019s a great goal for us to tackle. <\/p>\n
\u201cNow, I\u2019m not saying that we\u2019re going to achieve the same thing in New Zealand \u2013 there are a lot of metrics that come together and there\u2019s a lot of unknowns when you go into this, but we certainly feel confident based off that.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re significantly up on our original forecasts in Australia, and we\u2019re hoping that we can replicate the same thing to some extent in New Zealand.\u201d<\/p>\n
Brooks won\u2019t say what sort of subscriber numbers Warner Bros Discovery is expecting in the first year in New Zealand, but said having HBO Max as a standalone product was key to its success.<\/p>\n
\u201c… to see what happens when you actually take the product outside of a wall or an area that it\u2019s been in for so long, that was the slightly unexpected surprise for us … just what happens when it becomes highly accessible at a really good price point.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat was the explosion that we saw in Australia.\u201d<\/p>\n
Brooks is looking forward to seeing the data from having a direct HBO Max service. <\/p>\n
That will also play a role in determining whether HBO Max moves into local productions at some stage (in addition to parent company Warner Bros Discovery\u2019s blockbuster New Zealand-set films such as Minecraft and Lord of the Rings).<\/p>\n
\u201cYou\u2019ve got to remember our content has been with somebody else for a long time, we don\u2019t necessarily see all the data of performance, so we need to see that for ourselves.\u201d<\/p>\n
While Warner Bros Discovery has not partnered up with Sky, HBO Max\u2019s content will be available through Amazon Prime, which is increasingly becoming a platform hosting its own original content, as well as a shop window for its rivals\u2019 shows and movies. Amazon, for example, also showcases Apple TV shows on its home screen.<\/p>\n
Brooks will be in New Zealand next week for HBO Max\u2019s launch and launch party \u2013 the event at the Viaduct Events Centre is just a few blocks away from Sky TV\u2019s HQ. <\/p>\n
Editor-at-Large Shayne Currie is one of New Zealand\u2019s most experienced senior journalists and media leaders. He has held executive and senior editorial roles at NZME including Managing Editor, NZ Herald Editor and Herald on Sunday Editor and has a small shareholding in NZME.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"For a few more days, HBO Max content \u2013 including historic shows such as The Sopranos, Game of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":287414,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[128118,5837,4282,198,156,19338,2592,3012,78,2936,125743,194,3331,1739,33813,1073,3025,117,111,139,69,10903,1321,3291,6642,437,12901,6923,17450,80],"class_list":["post-472605","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tv","tag-audiences","tag-battle","tag-boss","tag-can","tag-entertainment","tag-expect","tag-hbo","tag-hopes","tag-in","tag-insider","tag-intensified","tag-kiwi","tag-launch","tag-launches","tag-max","tag-media","tag-most","tag-new","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-popular","tag-services","tag-streaming","tag-tells","tag-tv","tag-viewers","tag-what","tag-worlds","tag-zealand"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/472605","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=472605"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/472605\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/287414"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=472605"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=472605"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=472605"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}