Streaming Platform Max Is Changing Its Name Back To… HBO Max

You can’t make this stuff up. At the Warner Bros. Discovery Upfront presentation in New York today, it was announced that Max, the company’s streaming platform, will be rebranded HBO Max later this summer.

For those of you unfamiliar with the history, here’s a little recap. In 2010, HBO introduced its first streaming service HBO Go. Then in 2014, they rebranded it as HBO Now. Fast forward to 2020, and it became a more fleshed out product, complete with a new name of HBO Max.

They could have just left well enough alone then, but in 2023 they decided to drop the “HBO” from the name, simply going with Max. This was likely done to avoid confusion between the cable network and the streaming service. As if there weren’t enough confusion between all of these name changes.

Now, someone decided that it probably wasn’t a great idea to ditch the powerhouse brand name that has been around for 52 years, so back it comes in the form of HBO Max.

According to Warner Bros. Discovery, the change comes as the company seeks to scale back its volume of content and focus on quality programming and storytelling.

Casey Bloys, Chairman and CEO of HBO and Max Content explains, “With the course we are on and strong momentum we are enjoying, we believe HBO Max far better represents our current consumer proposition. And it clearly states our implicit promise to deliver content that is recognized as unique and, to steal a line we always said at HBO, worth paying for.”

Whatever the case, HBO knows they’re going to take a lot of flak for this (expensive) branding exercise gone wrong, and they’re leaning into it, posting a series of memes that pokes fun at themselves:

V2 approved by legal. pic.twitter.com/uUhH3RU4T6

— Max (@StreamOnMax) May 14, 2025

BREAKING: White smoke was seen coming from the Warner Bros. water tower. A new brand has been chosen. pic.twitter.com/DOC8LIWR4x

— Max (@StreamOnMax) May 14, 2025

Explaining to my friends I work at HBO Max again. pic.twitter.com/NSJFrNXrm3

— Max (@StreamOnMax) May 14, 2025

What do we think? pic.twitter.com/vafh1bQ7fv

— Max (@StreamOnMax) May 14, 2025

https://t.co/LZ4RKYRF92 pic.twitter.com/Qj7dTyIE1g

— Max (@StreamOnMax) May 14, 2025

Whatever the case, as long as they don’t try changing anything else (or raising their prices), I’m fine with it, as Max (excuse me, HBO Max) has a ton of great programming.