HBO Max and Discovery+ will introduce their combined service on May 23

The debut date for Warner Bros. Discovery’s new integrated streaming service in the US is set for May 23. The service would be known as just Max, as had been widely reported. With the collaboration of Warner Media and Discovery, it was assumed that a combined streaming service will be initiated. It was thought that Discovery+ could fully merge with HBO MAX. However, this was not the case given the current development. Instead, the two have come forward with a new service.

Well, there are not many details about the new streaming service. There are no details regarding the prices. However, some assumptions indicate that the ad-supported tier could cost around $15-$20 whereas the ad-free tier could cost $20 or more. Anyways it would be surprising to see if it comes with low-priced plans in contrast to the current HBO MAX plans. Besides all this, it is speculated that it will have a lot more content, possibly a lot more than Netflix.

Time for HBO to leave

Back in 1972, WBD introduced HBO (Home Box Office). It was introduced as a premium ad-free movie channel on cable. Later it was converted into a streaming service. After the acquisition of Time Warner by AT&T, HBO was rebranded as HBO MAX. HBO MAX included some licensed content as well as all content of Warner Bros.

Well, now it appears like HBO is done. It is going to be simply called ‘Max’. Both HBO and Discovery are well-known brands. And it would have been wise to utilize one of them in the name of the new service. But when the service debuts the following month, we’ll have to see how this turns out.

One of the notable aspects of this new development is that although Max is a new service Discovery+ is not going away. It is due to the fact that Discovery+ has a good following. It has a consumer base that accesses reality TV for about $5 a month. So, getting them to pay double or triple this amount would be a hard sell. For this reason, Discovery+ is still there for its loyal consumers.