HBO Max will soon make its debut in America, but across the pond in the UK, existing content deals are proving to be a stumbling block. In today's entertainment landscape, streaming is the place to be, with so many of the most popular new shows and movies being exclusive to online services. At this point, the biggest hits all still mostly belong to Netflix, but with their enormous subscriber base, that's to be expected. Still, more and more competitors are appearing to challenge for the throne.
The most recent heavyweight entrant into the streaming ring is Disney+, which offers a huge portion of Disney's own content library, plus the animated films of Pixar, the vast majority of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, and the Star Wars franchise, as well as lots of content from Disney's new subsidiary Fox. Disney+ has proven a formidable foe so far, but next up on the streaming docket is HBO Max, which combines all the standard HBO content with a large array of additional Warner Bros. properties, as well as licensed material.
HBO Max launches stateside on May 27, and to say lots of people are looking forward to that day is an understatement. HBO Max looks to rival, if not surpass, Disney+ when it comes to selection of top quality movies and shows, but unfortunately, the service isn't currently scheduled to come to the UK.
In one what will be a massive disappointment to fans of HBO, Warner Bros., and Turner content in the UK, Warner Media has no plans to offer HBO Max to them as a standalone product. Instead, thanks to existing high-dollar deals, HBO original movies and shows will continued to be offered on the channel Sky Atlantic, as well as Sky's streaming service Now TV. This will also hold true for all of HBO Max's original content. Sky will also continue to co-produce shows for HBO via its Sky Studios operation. It's unclear what non-original content from the large HBO Max library will be made available on Sky and Now TV, if anything.
UK consumers shouldn't expect HBO Max to come to the UK as a standalone service anytime in the near future either, as HBO's deal with Sky was just re-upped in fall 2019, and will run for five years. That means the soonest Warner Media would be able to try launching HBO Max outside of Sky would be in fall 2024. However, there's no real reason for them to do that, as the HBO deal with Sky is extremely lucrative, and it's unclear if HBO Max UK subscriptions would be able to recoup all the revenue that would be lost by ending the partnership.
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