Maybe (HBO) Max Just Isn’t Worth It::Warner Bros. Discovery’s latest earnings call reveals Max shed 700,000 subscribers in the past three months, even as it made money. That might work for Wall Street, but what about viewers?
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I just for the life of me cannot understand why all these companies thought it was a good idea to invest the time, money, resources, infrastructure, maintenance, and so many other things into developing their own service. Instead of just pawning off their content to some other sap who has to do all that shit for you. And making them pay you a pretty penny because you know they want your content. It’s just such incredible short-sightedness from companies that are constantly just chasing the biggest dollar. Like if anyone thought about it for a minute, all these companies would see that it wasn’t worth it to develop these services. They got scared cuz Netflix made some of its own good content. But realistically, if they just calm down they would have realized that Netflix can’t make bangers forever. And they’re still going to be invested in buying content from you. These big company should have gotten together and figured out how to reduce the price of cable so people fucking sign up for it and keep watching the mass amount of fucking ads.
Maybe this realisation is a good one on both fronts. Netflix was pretty uniquely positioned and had to actually compete against these giants, while the Giants are learning it’s hard and consumers don’t want 25 storefronts… convenience is key.
So maybe we will see some normalization in the streaming space.
I can hope… can’t I?
At this point I guarantee it’s going to turn back into cable where you’re paying $100 a month (with commercials) for the 2-3 streaming services that survive streamageddon.
I worry you are right
They saw Netflix was making a lot more money from their content and wanted s piecd of that pie. Now they’re slowly realizing it takes quite a while to get there.
Yeah but Netflix paid them for that content so it their fault they didn’t ask for a “fair price” or something. Also I guess they wanted to fuck over the artists by fudging with streaming numbers and pay them nothing.
I’m pretty sure that’s how Hulu started. A joint venture through several companies to stream all their shows. Problem is once Disney got in everyone else tried to spin up their own and cash out of Hulu.
It’ll be investing to see what alternatives crop up one piracy makes it’s comeback.
They all hoped their own service would dominate and incorporate all competition.
I’m kinda over paying for it. I really only got it for Jon Oliver and it’s basically free on YouTube so idk. Also on my computer I click on my Max bookmark and it’s like “hey we’re not HBO max anymore! Now it’s just Max! Redirecting you now…”
What? Am I going crazy? What is even the point of that.
I waited for the service to be available in my country for a very long time, now I don’t care 🏴☠️
IMO Max is far more worth it’s cost than Netflix, if for nothing else but the HBO shows and the selection of licensed movies.
I’m not holding my breath that it’ll continue to be worth it though, especially if they decide to go the Netflix route and churn out cheap reality TV.
Netflix seems to hold on to content for as long as possible, but HBO is going the route of removing content to avoid paying residuals to cast and crew. Frankly, because of that terrible decision, I’m relieved to see people leaving. That’s right; I subscribed and they removed West World right as I started it. I’m bitter, but mostly, that’s just a nasty thing to do to the cast and crew of shows that people love.
Also, side tangent. What the hell is with modern marketing firms getting into the brains of c-suites and talking them into destroying their brand? I mean, “Max”? WTF? HBO has been a household name since the 80s; everyone knows it, there was no need for a change. You know what Max is to most people? Cinemax, another household name from the 80s. Just stupid.
Every time I go to buy cat food I have to hunt down the bag, because some asshole talked them into a logo/design/name change. They’re changing something their customers look for, because some marketer is rattling around in their heads. It’s maddening.
People ask me where my wife works, and I can’t remember the name, because some marketer talks them into a revamp every 2 years.
Did everyone just graduate from the Elon Musk School of Dumb Marketing Decisions? PLEASE STOP, DAMMIT!
A different kind of pirate!
There are difficulties with pirating. I had friends over to watch the Singles Inferno 2 finale, but didn’t have Netflix so I torrented it. The download made it to 95% before stalling. The video player on my roku tv would move on to the next episode whenever it encountered a glitch, so it was unwatchable.
I’m sure it works better for good shows, but if you want to watch trash, pirating isn’t as easy as it used to be.
Well yeah, I’ve watched the new season of Harley Quinn, what else am I waiting around for?
Our Flag Means Death is pretty good.
Honestly I stopped playing video games a few years back and picked it back up during the writes strike. Dropped like $4,000 on a 7800x3d/4090 build. Cancelled all my steaming services , HBO Netflix, all of em, and signed up for game pass instead. I’m done watching stuff on them, if a series comes out I really want to see I’ll grab my wooden leg and eye patch from the back of th closet.
In the east EU I am paying 4,66EUR monthly for HBO Max service, which we share in 5 households. That is under 1EUR for each household. I will gladly pay that instead of downloading whatever already is on HBO Max.
