It's official: HBO's streaming platform, Max, is coming to Australia next year, as confirmed today by Warner Bros. Discovery.
Announced at a conference this morning, Warner Bros. Discovery APAC president James Gibbons told attendees that the service will launch in Australia sometime within the first half of 2025, remarking "that's definitely happening". Gibbons also announced that Max will make its way to Southeast Asia, Hong Kong and Taiwan by the end of 2024, with the service replacing the existing HBO Go platform.
Gibbons added that the company has "had a longstanding and really important relationship with Foxtel and I think the time has come for us to expand that into the DTC [direct-to-consumer] space".
But with an imminent launch seemingly months away, it's unclear what this means for homegrown streamer Binge and parent company Foxtel Group's current multi-year rights deal with Warner Bros. Discovery.
We previously reported on this back in March, when rumours were fuelled after Warner Bros. Discovery global head of streaming and games Jean-Briac Perette noted that HBO's content had performed "extremely well" in Australia and there was no denying the "demand" for the Max's content catalogue.
What about Binge?
Since its launch, Binge has acted as the Aussie streaming home to HBO shows, with fan favourites like The White Lotus and Game of Thrones prequel House of the Dragon fast-tracked to the platform.
Some of HBO's biggest shows were major drawcards for early Binge subscriber growth, with the streamer raking in 1.55 million paid subscribers in Foxtel Group's latest quarterly earnings report. With some of Binge’s best shows potentially being stripped away, we can only speculate that a mass exit of subscribers may come about for the platform.
But, while we cannot assume what will happen to the streamer, we can speculate that there will be some type of integration between the two, as suggested by Max's launch in other regions.
For instance, Japan welcomed Max's content catalogue via local partner platform, U-Next. Gibbons said that Max will live within the U-Next platform for no additional cost to consumers, with the deal acting as a "two-way street" between the services. The deal would see Max gain some of U-Next's Japanese content for its global platform, while U-Next would incorporate Max's catalogue.
If Warner Bros. takes on this stance in Australia, it could mean Max will live harmoniously within Binge. But until we get more information on how both streamers will work together with very similar content libraries, your Binge subscription is safe… at least, for now.
