Family-Friendly Content Will Be Much Bigger Focus on Max, But Is That Best for Company’s Brand?
Family-Friendly Content Will Be Much Bigger Focus on Max, But Is That Best for Company’s Brand?
Warner Bros. Discovery’s streaming service Max saw its official launch this week, rolling out to users on Tuesday, May 23. It’s the culmination of efforts that began more than a year ago — before the merger of WarnerMedia and Discovery was even finalized. The new platform will attempt to be all things to all people, offering general entertainment as well as some of the best prestige TV available.
One of the programming genres that will see an increased focus on Max will be kids and family shows. That may be somewhat surprising to those following the story since its inception, as WBD CEO David Zaslav promised to “reexamine” the amount of content for kids on HBO Max last May. That reexamination led to over 200 episodes of “Sesame Street” being purged from the platform, and to most kids animation being shelved at WBD, as well.
But content made for kids makes streaming services a better value proposition to families, and harder to cancel because of the beloved content they house. With intellectual properties like Hanna Barbera animation (the studio behind “Scooby-Doo” and other famed characters), “Harry Potter,” Looney Tunes, and others in its arsenal, WBD certainly has the tools needed to create more family-friendly programming on its platform, and that’s exactly what it plans to do.
“We want Max to be welcoming to all, including to a key customer segment: kids and families,” WBD streaming head J.B. Perrette said in April. “It’s a brand that has been built over five decades to be the edgy, groundbreaking trendsetter in entertainment for adults, but it’s not exactly where parents would most eagerly drop off their kids. And yet, Warner Bros. Discovery has some of the best-known kids’ characters, animation, and brands in the industry. Not surprisingly, the category has not met its true potential on HBO Max. We see this as a meaningful new engagement opportunity.”
New data from Nielsen indicates that adding stickier content will be a boon to Max. HBO Max made up 1.2% of total viewing time in the month of April, which was a lower share than all of the other “Big Five” streaming services—Disney+, Hulu, Netflix, and Prime Video. Indeed, HBO Max barely beat out Peacock and the free streaming platform Tubi, both of which garnered 1.1% of total viewing time.
Yet it’s also fair to wonder if a pivot to more family-friendly entertainment is in the best interests of WBD. The HBO brand has long been associated with blockbuster movies and prestige TV shows that are not appropriate for younger audiences for content reasons. The reputation HBO has built by making sterling TV shows like “Boardwalk Empire,” “The Sopranos” and more recently “Succession” helped drive users to HBO Max, who enjoyed the ability to stream new episodes of prestige TV as soon as they started to air on linear TV.
That feature won’t be going away on Max, but the “HBO” portion of its name is now only a memory. Pivoting away from putting the HBO brand forward first may help raise the profile of more family-friendly content available on Max, but it could leave customers wondering if WBD is committed to the same amount of prestige TV the company was a leader in during its HBO Max days.
Max
Max is a subscription video streaming service that gives access to the full HBO library, along with exclusive Max Originals. There are hubs for content from TLC, HGTV, Food Network, Discovery, TCM, Cartoon Network, Travel Channel, ID, and more. Watch hit series like “The Last of Us,” “House of the Dragon,” “Succession,” “Curb Your Enthusiasm,” and more. Thanks to the B/R Sports add-on, users can watch NBA, MLB, NHL, March Madness, and NASCAR events.