.png)
2 days ago
5 ARTICLE AD
Max rolled out in seven Asian countries today, but Warner Bros Discovery (WBD)’s streaming chief, JB Perrette, says there’s much work still to do.
“Despite the fact people have been reporting on us and talking about us that it’s the last two minutes of the game, or whatever metaphor you want to use, we see this as barely finishing act one,” he told Deadline in an interview.
Max, WBD’s global streaming service, has been rolling out over the past year, hitting some territories new and in others as a replacement and upgrade on the existing HBO Max. In Asia, it launches in Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Taiwan and Hong Kong. In a WBD first, lower-cost mobile-only launches in Indonesia and the Philippines are included.
Perrette, WBD’s CEO and President, Global Streaming and Games, says the market is finally responding to the launch strategy, but acknowledges there’s a long way to go yet. “We’ve been saying it and now you’re just starting to see it,” he added. “We said 2024 is a really big inflection point for us. We knew that a big portion of our growth was going to come from international, if you look at all markets Max is not in, it represents almost half of the addressable markets by broadband households.”
James Gibbons, WBD’s President of Asia Pacific, said the functionality of the new Max product will be a huge boon for Asian subscribers who have become accustomed to the dated HBO Go platform, which has not received any significant investment for some time now as newer products roll out. Max is available in Japan through a partnership with U-Next, but up to this point Go has been the main regional streaming product for WBD.
Max’s initial Asian offer will include the likes of Friends, House of the Dragon, The White Lotus and the upcoming Harry Potter and Game of Thrones prequel series A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms from the WBD ecosystem, DC Universe content, Cartoon Network, Discovery programming, along with movies from NBCUniversal and Paramount. “It is quite unique and arguably the strongest line up of movies of any streamer,” said Gibbons. “The proposition at launch is focused on a core of quality international content. We have a very firm plan to increase the amount of Asian content over time.”
Perrette also addressed the rollout of Max in the UK, Germany and Italy, where existing WBD content deals with Sky are in the spotlight. “Max will be available in those markets in 2026,” he said. “How they become available we’re not saying further at the moment.”
Read on for more from Perrette and Gibbons in this Q&A.
DEADLINE: As a starting point, how would you describe the rollout of Max so far? We’ve seen European launches in several territories.
JB Perrette: Fantastic — that’s the one-word answer. You saw in our earnings that despite the fact people have been reporting on us and talking about us as if it’s the last two minutes of the game or the last play, we see this as barely finishing act one. We’ve been saying it and now you’re just starting to see it: We said 2024 is a really big inflection point for us. We knew that a big portion of our growth was going to come from international, if you look at all markets, Max is not in, that represents almost half of the addressable markets by broadband households. If we’re at 110 million, we still have half the international markets to and we have a lot of tailwinds of growth with just the expansion of Max.
This was not just was our biggest quarter by every metric. This is the beginning of a trend that is a really positive one that will see continue all the way into ’26. The big three Sky markets that will come online at that point in time. Southeast Asia is particularly exciting because it’s our first direct launch in Asia. The product is not just like the one in other markets. It’s going from a two-generations old proposition in HBO in Asia, in HBO Go. The three differentiation is the content prop is much richer, stronger and broader.
DEADLINE: The difference between HBO Go and Max will be very significant for local subscribers…
JBP: We haven’t really supported any product innovation in HBO Go for years. It was being depreciated. You’re going from a not-great product experience to a much better one. It will be a pretty dramatic change — definitely night and day.
As all changes that happen, particularly with HBO Go that’s been in the market for many years, there will be some learning curve consumers have to get over, but everything from speed of video playback, personalization, recommendations, search capabilities and latency will be a huge improvement on what’s on HBO Go today. Everything about the product experience will be dramatically enhanced.
DEADLINE: What will the programming mix look like?
James Gibbons: The proposition at launch is focused on a core of quality international content. We have a very firm plan to increase the amount of Asian content over time. There is a very large existing fanbase of the content in the region — we’re not building from zero here. There will be WBD movies, we have NBCU and Paramount pay 1 windows, which is quite unique and arguably the strongest line up of movies of any streamer, and key series like Friends and the upcoming Harry Potter.
DEADLINE: Asia has a heavily matured streaming ecosystem in place already. What will encourage consumers to adopt Max?
JG: The first selling point is it’s all in one place for the first time. Secondly, the UX will be a world class experience. The fans are already there and there is so much excitement, with sign ups on social media alone telling us that. We have a very clear lane. Every platform needs to have us in the mix to be a complete proposition.
DEADLINE: The service is heavy on U.S. and international content at launch. What role will local Asian originals play?
JBP: We recognize local content in this part of the world is hugely important. This is chapter one and it will be international-led. Watch this space over the coming months and quarters as we try to find more ways to get localized over time.
DEADLINE: What other sorts of localisation will be implemented?
JG: Localization is partly about content, but also about the product and the language, and especially how it’s made available to segments of the customer base. For the first time, we’re launching mobile-only products [in Indonesia and the Philippines] at a price point more typical for an ad-lite proposition, which we’re not doing, and it really opens up a much bigger market. The reason why we’re doing that is the mobile behavior in those two markets is completely different to others. There’s enormous amounts of consumption on the go, so it makes sense to do that even though it’s a deviation from the regular product design. We will localize and be relevant whatever way we can.
DEADLINE: What’s next for the Asian rollout?
JG: The next market is Australia, which will be next year as a full app launch across the market. It’s one of the first and most important streaming markets in the world, and our content has huge traction there. Beyond that there are the content market licensing markets such as Korea and India. There are active conversations in those markets with key players and at the right time we will reveal our plans. We’re on the journey and we have ambition that all potential fans of Max can reach our service over time, but we look at markets on a case-by-case basis and we are very strict. In certain markets there are other models available, but certainly our ambition is to roll Max out as far as possible.
DEADLINE: You’ve stated the aim to make Max a market-leading global streaming service several times over the past two years. Does that mean targeting countries such as India, where the economics of streaming are different and profitability is even tougher to achieve?
JBP: We said back in August 2022 our ambition is to be a top-three streamer as measured by scale, share, engagement and profitability in each territory a couple years after launch. India is the most challenged in that equation. It has massive scale, but in a country where local content is so rich and deep, how do you do that and be credible as a top-three player from an engagement standpoint? And profitability is very elusive, as far as we can see, for any player in the market. We have existing relationships there and a way to go. It’s not a near-term question. We need to have confidence that we can deliver on those KPIs that we set out for ourselves in any market before we will go all in.
DEADLINE: How does content licensing fit into the Max ecosystem?
JBP: The priority will be Max and making sure there is exclusivity to make it valuable in the eye of the consumer. That’s a clear strategic priority. [However], we have done a bunch of experiments in a variety of markets and so far none of those ‘syndication’ deals have negatively impacted Max. We’ll continue to experiment with that and will continue to be a licensor. We don’t want content just sitting on the shelves and not performing for Max where it could be making money elsewhere. We have market by market discussions with James and the other MDs in other regions on what makes sense and what doesn’t. Max is the priority but if there are other opportunities, we will be selective in a smart way.
