With HBO Max Throwing Old Seasons of Shows Off the Platform, Where Can You Stream Them Now?
A lot has changed since we chose HBO Max as the best streamer of 2022 back in March. When David Zaslav jumped behind the wheel, he turned the Indy 500 into a demolition derby. The new CEO has been smothering projects in the cradle and throwing babies out with bath water. Whether or not these decisions have the positive financial impact he predicts, the end result for subscribers is a service that is quickly becoming a shadow of what it once was.
Zaslav’s cost-cutting rampage means you won't be able find “Westworld” or “The Nevers” on the platform. Many other shows have disappeared and future seasons of existing shows have been snuffed. Zaslav has also been swinging the axe at animated shows with small but mighty fanbases. There’s a very real possibility that some of these projects will end up buried in a vault somewhere.
For now, at least, you can still purchase some of these shows on digital marketplaces like Prime Video. One season of “Westworld” will set you back $24.99, and then you’ll “own” it forever (in theory). For a canceled-and-erased animated show like “Infinity Train,” the seasons range from $3.99-$10.99.
We have seen some instances where a purchased movie or show “disappears” from a digital media library for odd reasons. Those events are rare, but they can happen. It makes sense to buy a movie or film from a platform you expect will last indefinitely, which favors something like Prime Video or iTunes. If a smaller player like Redbox goes belly-up someday, you’ll lose your media library.
A less attractive option is to fire up the ol’ Blu-ray player and buy the physical discs of these movies or shows. With a show like “Westworld,” you can pick up a box set of the first season on Amazon for $27.54 on Blu-ray. You could save with the less expensive DVD set or splurge on a 4K version. With physical media, David Zaslav would have to drive to your house and fight you to get it back.
Most of us don’t want to return to the days of bookshelves filled with DVDs, but if there’s a show or movie you love, it would be the safest option. You can often find used versions of the discs for less than retail price. A previously viewed Blu-ray copy of that first season of “Westworld” can be had as low as $15 on Amazon. You may also check with your local library, since they tend to favor physical media.
The showrunner of the brilliant HBO Max miniseries “Station Eleven” said his show ended up on DVD even though he had no say in the release. So the availability of these things may be hit-or-miss moving forward.
About six weeks ago, a legitimate DVD version of the show did in fact become available from Viacom/Paramount, but it wasn’t something the creators or producers were informed of, and def not something we had oversight over. Still, I was glad to see it existed.
— Patrick Somerville (@patrickerville) December 13, 2022
In conclusion, though— feel free to watch it on HBO Max! The only way to really ensure shows remain available is that they generate too much interest (and completion) for anyone to justify removing them.
— Patrick Somerville (@patrickerville) December 13, 2022
Another worry for creators is that such aggressive actions will lead to an uptick in piracy. While the artists would still profit from your digital or physical purchase of media, frustrated viewers who turn to the dark side provide no benefit to the people who made the show or film. And if you give up on HBO Max entirely, Zaslav will swing his scythe based on the audience numbers of those who remain subscribed.
Time will tell if Zaslav can jettison enough weight to keep HBO Max afloat. Next year’s merger with discovery+ is likely to seal the company’s future one way or another. It’s possible these shows could emerge on another platform down the road. But for now, a lot of viewers are finding HBO Max a less attractive platform.
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