Warner Bros. Discovery to End Cinemax Go this Month; What's Next in Channel's Streaming Future?

Warner Bros. Discovery to End Cinemax Go this Month; What’s Next in Channel’s Streaming Future?

Matt Tamanini

July 5, 2022

Warner Bros. Discovery continues to deliver bad news as by the end of the month, Cinemax’s TV Everywhere platform, CinemaxGo, will completely end operations. While the app has not been available on mobile devices or connected TVs since 2020, the web version has continued to operate in the intervening years. However, beginning in August, Cinemax subscribers will only be able to watch the channel’s content on devices that are part of their traditional TV subscription.

WBD will sunset the service on July 31 when subscribers will need to access the premium cable network’s shows and movies via its eight linear channels or on-demand moving forward.

Similar to its corporate sibling, before the launch of HBO Max, HBO had had its own TVE platform — HBO Go — however, it also had HBO Now, which allowed customers to subscribe to the content directly outside of a traditional TV subscription. While consumers could formerly access Cinemax Go via multiple services’ channel options (including Apple and Amazon), there was never a direct corollary for the channel to HBO Now’s standalone subscription service. When HBO Max launched, both HBO Go and HBO Now quickly and quietly went away.

Currently, there are only seven series available on Cinemax Go: “Banshee,” “Hunted,” “Jett,” “The Knick,” “Quarry,” “Trackers,” and “Warrior.” Currently, four of those shows — “Banshee,” “Jett,” “The Knick,” and “Warrior” — are already available on HBO Max, as are many of the films available via Cinemax’s TVE service.

With the impending integration of discovery+ content into the HBO Max platform, this could be yet another clue as to what new WBD CEO David Zaslav is envisioning for the company’s premier streamer. Based on his experiences running Discovery and launching failed individual streamers for each of that company’s channels, Zaslav has long believed in the value of having a single service for all of WBD’s outlets.

So, by not offering an annual subscription to discovery+, by giving HBO Max subscribers substantial discounts to discovery+, and now by clearing the way of confusing viewing options for Cinemax, Zaslav might just be laying the groundwork to finally bring all of Warner Bros. Discovery’s disparate pieces under a single streaming umbrella.