One year after launching its rechristened flagship streaming platform, Warner Bros. Discovery is set to deploy Max across Europe, where it will subsume the last vestiges of legacy service HBO Max.
Starting May 21, Max will be available in The Nordics, Iberia, and Central and Eastern Europe, with launches in Poland, Netherlands, France and Belgium following soon after.
With the deployments, Max will be available in 25 countries in Europe and 65 countries and territories worldwide, following its launch in the U.S. in May of last year. Max was also deployed in Latin America and the Caribbean earlier this year.
WBD is preparing the platform for the June 17 season 2 premiere of Game of Thrones spinoff series House of the Dragon, as well as the upcoming Summer Olympic Games in Paris, for which Max will serve up 24/7 coverage in 25 European countries.
Max will launch in Europe with three different subscription plans: basic with ads, standard and premium. As it is in the U.S., a separate add-on sports package will also be available.
Warner has significantly trimmed EBITDA losses on DTC streaming in recent quarters -- they were down to $55 million in the fourth quarter versus $217 million in Q4 2022. But DTC scale has stagnated. WBD ended 2023 with 97.7 million DTC subscribers, up only slightly from the 96.1 million it closed 2022 with.
"The unrivaled content we’ve got on Max from House of the Dragon to Olympic Games Paris 2024 and beyond means whatever your mood or the occasion, Max has something great for everyone, every time," said JB Perrette, CEO and president of global streaming and games at WBD, in a statement.
