Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos, has said what many of us have been thinking, that Warner Bros Discovery should have chosen the HBO name for its combined steaming service, rather than Max.
In an interview with Variety Sarandos described the move as a “surprise”. “We would always watch what HBO was doing, and at one point they had HBO, HBO Go, HBO Now and HBO Max. And I said, “When they’re serious, all those names will go away, and it’ll just be HBO.” I would have never guessed HBO would have gone away. They put all that effort into one thing that they can tell the consumer — it should be HBO.”
HBO Max dropped the three initials from its name following the 2021 merger of WarnerMedia with Discovery. Subequently, Max has combined HBO with Discovery+ and is continuing its global rollout.
Sarandos also shared thoughts on Apple TV+: “I don’t understand it beyond a marketing play, but they’re really smart people. Maybe they see something we don’t.” And on Amazon Prime, where he has previously talked about how they didn’t understand their content strategy: “This is just me as an observer. Sports has been very effective. And I don’t know if that’s their entire strategy.”
However, as the number of streaming services has increased, Sarandos has confidence in its offer: “Our advantage is the investment we’ve made in personalization. We are not a one-genre label. If you love documentary, Netflix is the doc house. If you love drama, it’s the drama house. As long as we have the ability to do that, we’re going to be fine.”
