WarnerMedia HBO Max streaming service 1 1

[johnenock]

What is this show Lovecraft Country?

[Antpark]

17 hours ago, Bosco685 said:

 

Does this mean you won't be able to watch it from the website like you can now?

[Bosco685]

11 minutes ago, Antpark said:

Does this mean you won't be able to watch it from the website like you can now?

I think because these are all new announcements it is hard to tell just yet. I was just blown away the amount of properties they were able to pull together in one service release.

But no Swamp Thing. No Krypton. No Constantine.

[Ares]

For those of us in Canada

https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/bell-media-bolsters-crave-s-streaming-library-under-new-deal-with-hbo-max-1.1339930

Bell Media bolsters Crave's streaming library under new deal with HBO Max

 

TORONTO - As the battle for TV viewers intensifies, Bell Media says it has struck an agreement for the exclusive Canadian rights of original series made for the upcoming U.S. streaming platform HBO Max.

The pact with Warner Bros., announced Wednesday, will secure a fresh selection of programming to help fortify Bell's Crave streaming brand in an increasingly crowded market when Apple TV Plus and Disney Plus arrive in November.

The deal also confirms that HBO Max isn't headed to Canada as a stand-alone option when it launches stateside next May, a move that would have thrown another streaming competitor into the ring.

Instead, Bell Media president Randy Lennox said TV shows produced by Warner for HBO Max will mostly land on Crave's premium HBO tier, which costs roughly $20 per month. HBO Max will cost $14.99 per month in the United States.

For Canadians, the Crave subscription price won't be raised as part of the new agreement, Lennox added.

We wanted to simplify this convoluted world of so many offerings,” Lennox said in an interview with The Canadian Press.

“Disney Plus, Netflix and Amazon are inarguably ubiquitous goliaths - but when you add all this content ... to the already substantial Crave offering, I really do believe we compete on the world stage.”

Upcoming titles in the HBO Max deal, which takes effect next year, include a spinoff of “Gossip Girl,” DC Comics series “Green Lantern,” and “Dune: The Sisterhood,” a project from Quebec director Denis Villeneuve that's set in the universe of Frank Herbert's “Dune” novels.

But not everything on HBO Max will be mirrored in Canada. The agreement only covers output from Warner's television production operations.

That means certain TV shows produced by other companies will be excluded, among them Sony's update to the cult animated series “The Boondocks,” and “Sesame Street,” which has a U.S. deal with HBO Max for both past and upcoming seasons.

Wildly popular 1990s sitcom “Friends” was confirmed to be leaving Netflix for the HBO Max service in the United States, but won't be making that same leap in Canada. And Japanese animated films made by Studio Ghibli, including Oscar winner “Spirited Away,” aren't part of the deal either.

Lennox said the selection available through Crave's HBO package more than compensates for the missing programs.

[Antpark]

3 hours ago, Ares said:

For those of us in Canada

https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/bell-media-bolsters-crave-s-streaming-library-under-new-deal-with-hbo-max-1.1339930

Bell Media bolsters Crave's streaming library under new deal with HBO Max

 

TORONTO - As the battle for TV viewers intensifies, Bell Media says it has struck an agreement for the exclusive Canadian rights of original series made for the upcoming U.S. streaming platform HBO Max.

The pact with Warner Bros., announced Wednesday, will secure a fresh selection of programming to help fortify Bell's Crave streaming brand in an increasingly crowded market when Apple TV Plus and Disney Plus arrive in November.

The deal also confirms that HBO Max isn't headed to Canada as a stand-alone option when it launches stateside next May, a move that would have thrown another streaming competitor into the ring.

Instead, Bell Media president Randy Lennox said TV shows produced by Warner for HBO Max will mostly land on Crave's premium HBO tier, which costs roughly $20 per month. HBO Max will cost $14.99 per month in the United States.

For Canadians, the Crave subscription price won't be raised as part of the new agreement, Lennox added.

We wanted to simplify this convoluted world of so many offerings,” Lennox said in an interview with The Canadian Press.

“Disney Plus, Netflix and Amazon are inarguably ubiquitous goliaths - but when you add all this content ... to the already substantial Crave offering, I really do believe we compete on the world stage.”

Upcoming titles in the HBO Max deal, which takes effect next year, include a spinoff of “Gossip Girl,” DC Comics series “Green Lantern,” and “Dune: The Sisterhood,” a project from Quebec director Denis Villeneuve that's set in the universe of Frank Herbert's “Dune” novels.

But not everything on HBO Max will be mirrored in Canada. The agreement only covers output from Warner's television production operations.

That means certain TV shows produced by other companies will be excluded, among them Sony's update to the cult animated series “The Boondocks,” and “Sesame Street,” which has a U.S. deal with HBO Max for both past and upcoming seasons.

Wildly popular 1990s sitcom “Friends” was confirmed to be leaving Netflix for the HBO Max service in the United States, but won't be making that same leap in Canada. And Japanese animated films made by Studio Ghibli, including Oscar winner “Spirited Away,” aren't part of the deal either.

Lennox said the selection available through Crave's HBO package more than compensates for the missing programs.

if HBO Max isn't headed to Canada, what's the point of excluding content from the deal? Is it a money thing?

[Ares]

49 minutes ago, Antpark said:

if HBO Max isn't headed to Canada, what's the point of excluding content from the deal? Is it a money thing?

Probably Licencing

[Bosco685]

Quote

In a panel appearance Tuesday at CES in Las Vegas, a pair of top WarnerMedia execs offered a few new insights into HBO Max, the company’s subscription streaming offering set to debut in May.

 

Chief Technology Officer Jeremy Legg and EVP and GM of Direct-to-Consumer Andy Forssell painted a somewhat more detailed picture of the $15-a-month service than was offered last October at the company’s investor day. Legg said the goal will be to eliminate what he called the “endless scroll” of traditional streaming, through a mix of tech tools and human curation. Also, the plan is to target mobile devices with an interface that is more “swipey” than those of competitors. (“Is that a word?” he joked.)

 

Moderator Sara Fischer of Axios asked which shows would potentially come alive on HBO Max as You did when it moved from Lifetime to Netflix. “All of them,” Legg quipped. “I don’t think we should focus just on that one direction,” Forssell said. “If you think about our mission writ large, we have tremendous creative talent at HBO and HBO Max, Warner Bros., the Turner networks. Their job is to find great creative, find the right audience and the right place for it. There are cases where you’ll see things where we’ll decide the right place for it is SVOD and there may be life for it on linear networks or elsewhere. You’ll see the reverse as well. You’re going to see it both directions. I think there is as much synergy there, more so than conflict.”

 

HBO Max will be the last major entrant into the roiling competition in streaming, a sector that has seen Apple and Disney launch major challenges to Netflix and other established players. NBCUniversal will debut Peacock in April.

 

One aspect of the HBO Max launch that remains unsettled is its distribution plan. Disney got early traction with Disney+ ahead of its November arrival by setting key bundles — one of them internal, a $13-a-month package with Hulu and ESPN+ — and the other a partnership with Verizon. Both arrangements helped Disney score 10 million sign-ups as of its first day on the market. “We’ll absolutely do that,” Forssell said. “Bundling, when it’s done right, is good for consumers and it’s good for people doing the bundle. It makes things stickier. You can bet that we’ll be aggressive.”

 

Legg said the company is likely to “ease our way into” features such as interactivity, which Netflix has been starting to deploy more broadly, but down the road a bit. “Right now, I think Andy and I just want to get it out the door in the spring,” he said.

 

In terms of subscriber targets, Forssell reaffirmed prior guidance that WarnerMedia is aiming to reach 50 million households in its first five years, but also focusing on more than just the numbers. “The symbology is more important — we need to matter,” he said. “You do that by a count of how many people are obviously paying every month for the service. But you also do it through engagement. … It needs to matter to people and they need to use it, so we have some pretty stringent internal goals there. We’re being entrusted with a huge investment in this service” by WarnerMedia and its parent, AT&T.

 

In terms of benchmarks, Legg said one important benchmark the company has already cleared is handling 4.7 million concurrent streams of the Game of Thrones finale last spring. That should enable HBO Max to weather the storm once it is up and running — unlikely Disney+, whose successful debut was marred by tech glitches on Day 1.

 

Fischer began with a non-tech question, checking in on the state of HBO in the wake of former chief Richard Plepler’s departure (with the exec recently surfacing as a producer with a multi-year deal at Apple). Forssell’s characterization of the post-Plepler team: “awesome.”

 

[Bosco685]

Quote

The executive was the founding CEO of Hulu, holding the post from 2007-2013.

WarnerMedia has found its new CEO.

 

Former Hulu CEO Jason Kilar has been named the new chief of the AT&T division, replacing John Stankey, who was recently upped to president and chief operating officer at the parent company. Kilar, who will report to Stankey, will join the company on May 1.   

 

"Jason is a dynamic executive with the right skill set to lead WarnerMedia into the future. His experience in media and entertainment, direct-to-consumer video streaming and advertising is the perfect fit for WarnerMedia, and I am excited to have him lead the next chapter of WarnerMedia’s storied success,” Stankey said in a statement. 

 

He added, “Our team led by Bob Greenblatt, Ann Sarnoff, Gerhard Zeiler and Jeff Zucker has done an amazing job establishing our brands as leaders in the hearts and minds of consumers. Adding Jason to the talented WarnerMedia family as we launch HBO Max in May gives us the right management team to strategically position our leading portfolio of brands, world-class talent and rich library of intellectual property for future growth."

 

In his new role, Kilar will assume oversight of a vast media portfolio, one that includes news network CNN, film studio Warner Bros. and prestige cable network HBO. 

 

His appointment also signals that WarnerMedia is prioritizing the performance of its forthcoming streaming service, HBO Max. He brings deep streaming experience to the roll. After several years at Amazon, where he was a close ally of CEO Jeff Bezos, Kilar became the founding CEO of Hulu. From 2007 to 2013, he saw the fledgling streamer through its period of early growth and navigated the complex corporate relationship between its three owners, Disney, NBCUniversal and 21st Century Fox. 

 

After he left Hulu, he co-founded and served as CEO of streaming video startup Vessel, which sought to bring a windowing strategy to shortform digital video by offering early access to content from top YouTubers. But the service struggled to catch on with customers accustomed to getting that programming for free, and he ultimately sold its technology to Verizon in 2016. He has also served on the boards of DreamWorks Animation and Univision. 

 

"In partnership with this world-class team, I'm so excited for the opportunity to lean into the future at WarnerMedia," Kilar said in a statement. "Stories well told have always mattered, and they matter even more in this challenging time for the world. It will be a privilege to invent, create, and serve with so many talented people. May 1 can't get here soon enough."

 

A longtime AT&T executive, Stankey assumed oversight of WarnerMedia after the telecom company completed its $85.4 billion acquisition of the media company, formerly named Time Warner. But after Stankey, who has a reputation as a strategic business operator, took on a larger role within AT&T in September 2019 — one that sets him up as as a likely successor to AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson — observers suggested that he would look for an experienced Hollywood executive to replace him in running WarnerMedia's day-to-day operations. 

 

Kilar will inherit a company undergoing a significant transformation as it repositions itself to offer its programming direct to consumers with HBO Max. Fourth quarter operating income for the media unit was down nearly 10 percent to $2.4 billion due to the investment in and foregone content licensing revenue tied to HBO Max and that trend is expected to continue through the first half of 2020.

 

[Bosco685]

Quote

The future of Warner Bros.' DC Films slate is set to go into some interesting directions in the coming years, with a lot of highly-anticipated blockbusters scheduled between now and 2024. With the company fully embracing a live-action cinematic multiverse - which allows characters and films to coexist outside of one shared continuity - there's set to be a lot of creativity and surprising things announced in the coming years.

 

According to a new report from The New York Times, which profiles DC Films president Walter Hamada, that is set to involve more TV spinoffs of popular DC films. The report claims that DC Films will now "work with filmmakers to develop movie offshoots — TV series that will run on HBO Max and interconnect with their big-screen endeavors"

 

“With every movie that we’re looking at now, we are thinking, ‘What’s the potential Max spinoff?’” Hamada explained.

Fans have already gotten to see an inkling of what that could entail, with two TV spinoffs of upcoming DC films already announced. This includes Peacemaker, a spinoff of The Suicide Squad that is set to reunite star John Cena and writer-director James Gunn. There's also a Gotham PD spinoff of The Batman, the upcoming film that will offer Matt Reeves' unique take on Gotham City.

 

Beyond that, there are a lot of potential spinoffs that fans have expressed a desire to want to see -- including a proper sequel series to this year's Birds of Prey, or a solo series spinning out Jurnee Smollett's Black Canary. There's also the Amazons-themed Wonder Woman spinoff, something that arguably could be more likely after what was set up in this weekend's Wonder Woman 1984.

 

Even films that have yet to start production have already courted speculation about a potential spinoff, with Black Adam's Hawkman and the Justice Society of America being a good possibility. To an extent, the reverse situation could even be possible, as there's no saying that HBO Max's planned Green Lantern and Strange Adventures TV series couldn't also help set up a movie.

 

While there's no telling exactly what the future could hold for DC Films' TV spinoffs, the possibility of them is definitely exciting. 

 

[Bosco685]

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HBO Max has bolstered its DC Comics TV roster.

 

The WarnerMedia-backed platform used its second annual DC FanDome event to fortify its lineup of DC dramas, announcing early fourth-season renewals for Titans and Doom Patrol and officially become the new home of former Epix series Pennyworth.

 

Both Doom Patrol and Titans originated on niche streamer DC Universe, which is no longer producing originals and is now exclusively a hub for comic book titles. MGM-backed Epix licensed the first two seasons of Pennyworth, a prequel about the early days of Batman’s famous butler. Word first leaked about the Pennyworth move in May, when HBO Max offered to take over the drama starring Jack Bannon and Ben Aldridge. In addition to having the third season of Pennyworth as an original, HBO Max will also be the streaming home for the first two seasons of the drama from showrunner Bruno Heller. Epix, sources say, will have the option to pay a reduced licensing fee for the series should the Michael Wright-led premium cable network opt to air it on a linear platform.

Quote

The move extends the year-old streamer’s roster of DC Comics originals as HBO Max is also the streaming home of The CW originals including Batwoman and Superman & Lois. Both of those shows, like Titans and Doom Patrol, are produced by Greg Berlanti as part of his rich overall TV deal with Warners. Berlanti is also building out a roster of big-budget DC scripted originals (Green Lantern) that are unlikely to be connected to the universe that launched on The CW with Arrow or the world of Titans and Doom Patrol. Berlanti helped launch DC Universe with a world of connected series exclusively for the platform before Warners brass opted to move them to HBO Max as corporate parent WarnerMedia shifted scripted resources to bulk up its top priority.

 

Beyond the large number of Berlanti-produced DC shows that live and are in the works at HBO Max, the platform will also be home to a Justice League Dark universe that is being overseen by J.J. Abrams, who has his own rich pact with DC corporate parent WarnerMedia.

 

The new season of Pennyworth will air at a date to be determined in early 2022. Doom Patrol‘s second season wraps Nov. 11. The series stars Brendan Fraser, Matt Bomer and Diane Guerrero. Jeremy Carver (Supernatural) serves as showrunner. Titans wraps its third season Oct. 21. Brenton Thwaites, Anna Diop and Teagan Croft star in the drama from showrunner Greg Walker.

 

[Bosco685]

This show looks like it is going to deliver another surprising season.

 

[Bosco685]

 

[Bosco685]

 

[Lpgk]

Remember Warner/ DC is the same company that had to end Swamp Thing early, because they forgot to file for tax credits in Georgia. I can't make this up. And the show was great up to that point. 

They're apparently not good at making movies, nor managing the movie business. 

 

[Bosco685]

On 8/3/2022 at 10:33 PM, Lpgk said:

Remember Warner/ DC is the same company that had to end Swamp Thing early, because they forgot to file for tax credits in Georgia. I can't make this up. And the show was great up to that point. 

They're apparently not good at making movies, nor managing the movie business. 

 

That was the excuse used by a report. The creatives noted word came down from the execs planning the HBO Max launch they felt it was too dark a content to work for streaming. So dumb!

[Bosco685]

For those of the mindset "Well they got paid" the cast and crew also want to see their work released too. They spent countless hours laboring to create this content.

 

[Bosco685]

What timing!

 

[Bosco685]

You could call it that 

[Bosco685]

 

[Bosco685]