The merger of Warner/HBO and Discovery has been a subject of controversy ever since it was publicly announced. Executives led by David Zaslav have made business decisions that angered professionals and subscribers, including the removal of several titles, shelving of HBO projects, and lack of inclusion of proper credit to writers and directors. Now, a new report hailing from IndieWire reveals a notable discrepancy relating to Discovery and HBO titles in the rebranded platform Max.
IndieWire reports that, according to research conducted by streaming aggregator Reelgood, more than half of the titles on the Max library are Discovery+ shows, and only 3% of the total 1,208 series in the digital library are Max exclusives. While Discovery certainly has a hefty pool of content to draw from – and several of its original series do not require payment of residuals to remain in the catalog — you can’t ignore the fact that the merger represents a loss for Max subscribers, since they are bound to be more interested in HBO content.
On top of that, Discovery+ still retains its standalone app, which means that subscribers who really really want to consume Discovery content have alternatives to finding what they want to watch, while discarded HBO series got lost in the void. The new streaming platform only brought 42% of the HBO Max series. Westworld, Chad, Genera+ion, Infinity Train, Love Life, Minx, The Closer, Vinyl, and reality series like FBoy Island, and Finding Magic Mike are among some of the titles that were categorized as underperforming and that subscribers won’t be able to watch on Max – at least for the foreseeable future.
A Long History of Disappearing Content
The unpopular decisions regarding Max titles stretch all the way back to August when (then) newly appointed CEO Zaslav announced that the highly anticipated superhero movie Batgirl was getting axed even though it was in full production and had already cost over $90 million to produce. Then, the platform suffered a “purge” and several titles were removed, prompting creators to voice their discontent with the executive decision.
Max also angered subscribers due to a series of crash reports on launch day, and this new piece of information won’t exactly make paying customers happy with the fact that they won’t have the opportunity to watch certain titles. Even though Max and Warner are certainly angling towards bulking up the catalog, the ongoing writers’ strike may have an unanticipated effect on their plains, since productions are bound to get halted and new seasons won’t be produced while the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP) refuses to come to an agreement with the WGA.
Stick with Collider to find out news about the ongoing strike and new Max information as soon as they are announced.
