Tech

Clarify yourself once and for all: HBO, HBO Spain, HBO Max… are they the same?

Times have changed. In the year 2010, the rise of mobile devices led HBO to evolve the television format that had exploited until then. born like this HBO GO, which was the company’s video-on-demand service. Among the products included were productions from 20th Century Fox, Universal Pictures and Warner Bros.

On the other hand, there was another service called HBO NOW. It was identical to HBO GO, except that GO was for those who had HBO contracted on the television and NOW was for those new subscribers who did not want to have the television channel.

However, these services never came to our country. Instead she would HBO Spaina radically different product.

HBO Spain

hbo spain

HBO Spain arrived at the hand of Vodafone in 2016. Users of this company could purchase an entertainment pack in which this service was integrated. The rest could enjoy a one-month trial before subscribing. It was on this platform that the Game of Thrones episodes were released, for example.

However, HBO Spain was a Independent service from HBO’s original parent company in the United States. Our HBO is rooted in HBO Europespecifically, in the HBO Nordic division. Without going into too much detail, the origins of this HBO subsidiary come from the Time Warner stage, which had several media outlets in several northern European countries decades ago. This would justify the company’s certain independence from the global brand. on 26 October 2021, HBO Spain was replaced by HBO Max. The details of this transition will be explained later.

HBO Max: WarnerMedia opens up to global business

hbo max catalog

Before you understand what HBO Max is, you have to understand the corporate buzz about HBO. HBO is owned by WarnerMediawhich in turn forms part of the AT&T conglomerate. As early as 2018, WarnerMedia had plans to release a OTT streaming service that encompasses all its entertainment brands. After a business restructuring, in 2019, with Netflix eating more and more ground to the scattered HBO services around the world, the group announced that the official platform of streaming by Warner Media It would be called HBO Max.

This is where lies the confusion. WarnerMedia could have called their service ‘Warner+’, and removed the word HBO from the equation. However, he dubbed the service ‘HBO Max’ to indicate that the service would be “like HBO, but with a lot more content.” In this case, one of WarnerMedia’s first moves was to remove its most famous series and movies from Netflix, with the aim of bringing them into their own territory. In mid-2020, HBO Max premiered in the United States. Meanwhile, the countries of Europe continued to depend on the services of HBO Europe.

So… what is HBO Max?

warner media hbo max

HBO Max is the WarnerMedia entertainment platform, owned by AT&T. After launching and testing in the United States, Warner’s streaming service took its step to become a global business. The idea was to put an end to all the HBO divisions to offer a solid, competitive, homogeneous product in all the countries of the world and with content not only from HBO, but from all WarnerMedia productions (what we used to know as Time Warner).

Thanks to this change, HBO Max has (or may have) in its Catalogue entertainment products of all these marks:

  • HBO
  • Cinemax
  • DC-Entertainment
  • cartoon Network
  • adult swim
  • Boomerangv
  • TCM

In addition, WarnerMedia also controls the CNN Worldwide brands and other Turner Broadcasting System brands, which are not necessarily going to be represented on HBO Max.

Why is there so much confusion?

hbo versions

Precisely because of the way in which the change from one brand to another was announced. Many people simply thought that HBO Max was about a change in the HBO brand. What is known as a rebranding. A marketing strategy to modernize the brand and attract a new audience.

Nevertheless, it’s not really like that. HBO Max is not ‘HBO with more stuff’. HBO Max is to Warner what Disney+ is to The Walt Disney Company. The ‘HBO’ brand is still a legacy of the first foray of one of the first brands of the WarnerMedia group in the streaming market. The mark has been reused, but the resulting product is radically different.

Even so, there are statements that can make us doubt a lot about this issue even if we are clear about the differences between HBO and HBO Max. For example, would the headline ‘peacemaker is the best premiere in the history of HBO Max’? Well, considering that the platform is barely two years old, it would not be entirely incorrect. But, in that case, it is clear that the headline will attract angry hordes of followers of Game of Thronesbecause it completely ignores all the past of HBOwhich, one way or another, is integrated into HBO Max.

What other differences are there between HBO and HBO Max?

Birds of prey censored on HBO Max

In addition to all the differences that we have mentioned in the previous paragraphs, HBO Max has in its catalog some bonus content which are also noteworthy:

  • Premieres: Warner productions will arrive on HBO Max 45 days after theatrical releases.
  • 4K resolution: Although an exact date has not been given, WarnerMedia promises to increase the quality of its image and sound. Ultra HD content will begin with releases coming from theaters.
  • Devices: HBO allowed 2 simultaneous screens. HBO Max allows 3. Also, HBO only allowed to create 5 profiles in total. HBO Max has no user limits. Profiles can be customized with colors and all sorts of parental controls can be applied.
  • MaxOriginals: These are the original productions that the Warner Media group is going to create exclusively for the new HBO Max platform.

Has the implementation of HBO Max in Spain already finished?

Not really. are still left HBO Nordic loopholes in the service that we Spaniards enjoy. Warner Bros Media content has not been slow to reach Europe, but part of the content distribution is still linked to the European division of HBO. Even so, it is logical that the brand requires a few months or a few years of adaptation after the change, since it has gone from having several independent companies in different markets to forming a single international service, with the pros and cons that this entails.

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