HBO Max attacks the established streamers: "There's still room for improvement"

Contents

As if there wasn't already enough choice of streaming providers: HBO Max will be added in 2026. “It's not too late,” said Matthias Heinze, Senior Vice President Commercial and Managing Director at Warner Bros. Discovery GSA, at the “Media Tasting” media congress in Stuttgart yesterday. According to Heinze, the number of streaming subscriptions per household in the German market has increased by 50 percent over the past five years. “There is still room for improvement,” the manager is certain.

Market is growing – but not customers' budgets

According to market studies, each streaming user has an average of 2.5 to 2.8 paid subscriptions – known as subscription video on demand (SVoD). Although the market is growing, streaming expenditure is reaching its limits. According to the “Future of Consumer Technology” study by the IT association Bitkom, an average of EUR 15.40 per month was spent on SVoD services in 2024 – EUR 2.50 less than in 2022.

However, Heinze relies on the experience of 78 markets, in which HBO Max was able to gain a total of 122 million subscribers. The cornerstone for this are HBO formats such as “Game of Thrones”, “The Sopranos” and “Succession”. In addition to Discovery content, there are also films from Warner Studios. These include the Harry Potter and Matrix series, “Lord of the Rings”, “The Hobbit” and blockbusters such as “Inception”, “Barbie” and the new “Dune” film adaptation, which now also has a prequel series.

Sky is likely to lose premieres

At the media tasting, Heinze indicated that there is still room for improvement in the playout of HBO content in Germany. “Due to Sky's strong focus on sports, we have not reached some target groups,” said Heinze in Stuttgart. HBO content was previously available on Sky. “We want a platform on which all content is available.” This is likely to mean that Sky and RTL, which is in the process of buying up Sky, will have to make do without premieres from HBO and Warner in the future.

Advertising and bundle offers

With HBO Max, Warner Bros. Discovery wants to attack the market leaders Amazon and Netflix. “We have the chance to become one of the top 3 streamers,” explained Heinze. US studios such as Disney and Paramount, which are already represented on the German market with streaming services, want to leave Warner Bros. Discovery behind.

An ad-financed streaming subscription will probably also help achieve this. “There is no plan for a free service,” said Heinze at the media tasting. “But there will probably be an entry-level product with advertising.” The manager did not rule out bundle offers and referred to the USA, where HBO Max is available together with Hulu and Disney+.

(dmk)