The wait for Max‘s European launch is nearly over.
The Warner Bros Discovery streaming service will launch in the Nordics, Iberia, and Central and Eastern Europe — where HBO Max is already available — on May 21, with launches in Poland, the Netherlands, France, and Belgium following closely after. House of the Dragon season 2 will debut in Europe on June 17.
This means the streamer will be available in 25 countries in Europe and 65 overall, having first launched in the U.S. in May last year. Pricing wasn’t revealed.
HBO Max, which Max replaced in the U.S., is currently offers in some European territories but is being phased out. The launches in France and Belgium mark the first new territory launches for WBD in two years. In Belgium and the Netherlands, the service will be known as HBO Max.
Notably, Max will be the only platform to stream all live coverage of the Paris Olympic Games later this year. The service will also provide a bigger content offer than HBO Max, with the likes of Barbie, The Last of Us, The White Lotus, Euphoria, and True Detective: Night Country.
A sports add-on will offer the likes of the tennis Grand Slams, the US Open and the Tour de France, with rights varying in different countries. Linear networks such as CNN International and WBD’s Polish channel TVN will be offered locally.
Announcing the roll out timings at the Series Mania festival in France today, JB Perrette, CEO and President of Global Streaming & Games at Warner Bros. Discovery said: “Max is the streaming home of Warner Bros. Discovery and builds on our long heritage in Europe, bringing together an incredible breadth and depth of culture-defining entertainment from our services and networks, all in one place. The unrivalled content we’ve got on Max from House of the Dragon to the Olympic Games Paris 2024 and beyond means whatever your mood or the occasion, Max has something great for everyone, every time.”
WBD International President Gerhard Zeiler and EMEA Head of Streaming Leah Hooper Rosa had first announced the plan to launch Max in Europe at Mipcom Cannes last year.
Looking further ahead, we understand WBD is planning to launch Max in the UK — something that has been widely expected since the international rollout was first announced.
The rights picture in the UK is complicated, with Sky the exclusive distributor of most HBO content through its lucrative licensing deal with WBD. That agreement ends in 2025, but it is believed certain shows such as House of the Dragon are tied to Sky via ‘life of series’ agreements, meaning the platform will continue to show them regardless of a wider deal.
Last year, Sky CEO Dana Strong has said she was “optimistic” that the Comcast-owned company’s UK division can keep hold of HBO content when the deal comes up for renewal in 2026. It is likely the pair will look to form some type of agreement, with one source suggesting Max could be carried exclusively on the Sky pay-TV platform.
WBD was the first of the U.S. studios to post a full-year profit for its streaming segment, making $103M in 2023.