HBO Max Officially Launches

(Image credit: WarnerMedia)

LOS ANGELES—HBO Max, the streaming service created by WarnerMedia, is now available, adding a new platform for consumers’ seemingly constant expanding options of streaming services.

HBO Max offers content from WarnerMedia’s catalog—highlighted by “Friends,” “Game of Thrones,” “The West Wing” and “South Park”—as well as original content, which amounts to 10,000 hours of content, according to WarnerMedia. Other available content comes from HBO, Warner Bros. movies and TV shows, titles from New Line, DC, CNN, TNT, TBS, truTV, Cartoon Network, Adult Swim, Crunchyroll, Rooster Teeth, Looney Tunes Cartoons and a selection of classic films curated in partnership with Turner Classic Movies.

Product features include editorialized landing pages, premium trays of curated content, HBO Max hubs, genre and category pages. There are multi-user profiles as well as features like Continue Watching, My List and My Downloads. Additional features include parental controls and the ability to download content to watch offline.

“Today we are proud to introduce HBO Max—a dream that was created and nurtured by an incredible team of talented executives who dedicated the last year-and-a-half to making it a reality for consumers nationwide,” said Bob Greenblatt, chairman of WarnerMedia Entertainment and Direct-to-Consumer. “However, this is just the beginning of our journey. We will continue to innovate and evolve this one-of-a-kind platform that brings together beloved programming from across the WarnerMedia family and around the world, while also paving the way for the creative voices of tomorrow.”

HBO Max is automatically available to existing HBO and HBO Now subscribers at no extra cost; the HBO Now app will automatically update to HBO Max. Those interested in subscribing can do so through HBOMax.com, which also has the full list of providers. HBO Max is available for $14.99 a month.

However, consumers that have Roku and Amazon Fire TV will not be able to access HBO Max as of the launch, according to reports from TVT’s sister publication Next|TV.

HBO Max is the third new streaming service to launch this year, following Peacock and Quibi, and the fifth in the last year—Disney+ and Apple TV+ launched in 2019.