HBO Max Officially Rebrands to ‘Max,' Expands 4K Offerings

Game of Thrones
(Image credit: HBO Max)

HBO Max’s rebrand to simply “Max” takes effect today and the service is marking the launch by expanding its 4K content eight-fold. 

At launch, Max will introduce a new Ultimate Ad-Free tier that will offer four concurrent streams, up to 100 offline downloads and nearly 8x more films and episodes of 4K UHD content (some in 60fps format) than HBO Max, including popular programming such as Game of Thrones, The Last of Us, Harry Potter, The Lord of the Rings trilogy, The Dark Knight trilogy, The Matrix films and more, all for $20/month or $120/year. Existing HBO Max subscribers will still have access to their current plan features for a minimum of six months following launch. 

Dolby Atmos and Vision will be available for select content and devices. 

“We understand the value of offering our users a cinematic playback experience and to that end, we’ve implemented more advanced technology workflows that allow us to release more 4K content in a faster, more efficient way,” said Sudheer Sirivara, Global Technology Platform, Warner Bros. Discovery. “Max will offer more than 1,000 films and episodes in 4K at launch, and we’ll be adding more every month as we move forward.” 

Additionally, all Warner Bros. movies released this year and going forward will be available in 4K UHD when they arrive on Max following their theatrical windows.

On May 23, a large portion of HBO Max subscribers will have their apps automatically updated, while others will be prompted to download the updated Max app. HBO Max subscribers will have their previous plan, profiles, avatars, settings, “Continue Watching” and “My List” items waiting for them to stream on Max. Ahead of launch, customers can also pre-register for Max on the Google Play Store or pre-order on the Apple App Store now. Additional information can be found here.

Tom Butts

Tom has covered the broadcast technology market for the past 25 years, including three years handling member communications for the National Association of Broadcasters followed by a year as editor of Video Technology News and DTV Business executive newsletters for Phillips Publishing. In 1999 he launched digitalbroadcasting.com for internet B2B portal Verticalnet. He is also a charter member of the CTA's Academy of Digital TV Pioneers. Since 2001, he has been editor-in-chief of TV Tech (www.tvtech.com), the leading source of news and information on broadcast and related media technology and is a frequent contributor and moderator to the brand’s Tech Leadership events.