HBO Max to launch streaming service in Australia
Warner Bros Discovery’s local president has confirmed that the Max streaming service will be launching in Australia during the first half of 2025.
Speaking at the APOS conference in Bali on Wednesday — Asia’s premier event for the media, telecoms and entertainment industry – Warner Bros Discovery APAC president James Gibbons confirmed that the streaming service — formerly known as HBO Max — will be launching in Australia next year.
“We can also confirm we’ll be launching our direct service in Australia in the first half of next year; that’s definitely happening,” Gibbons said.
“We have had a longstanding and really important relationship with Foxtel and I think the time has come for us to expand that into the DTC space.”
It’s unclear what this means for Foxtel’s current rights deal. In March, 2023, Foxtel Group signed a new multi-year deal with Warner Bros Discovery, which saw the HBO and Max Originals content stay with the media group in Australia.
Foxtel Group’s CEO Patrick Delany stressed at the time the deal had “optionality at its core”.
“This landmark partnership cements our position as the partner of choice to the world’s largest entertainment studios.
“A unique business model like ours that covers multiple platforms and brands means we can partner for the long term and together we will continue to entertain millions of Australians every day for years to come.”
Gibbons said when the deal was struck: “Foxtel Group are a long-term, historic partner for Warner Bros Discovery in Australia, and we are thrilled to deepen this strong collaboration with a renewed agreement that reflects the scale and opportunity of Foxtel Group’s growing suite of products and customer base.
“As we look to drive strategic growth of our business across all platforms locally, this deal also provides optionality for future collaboration, including for our future streaming service, that will ultimately offer Australians greater access to the world-class storytelling and much-loved brands Warner Bros Discovery is renowned for.”
Foxtel reiterated Delany’s earlier comments when speaking to Mumbrella today, with a spokesperson saying: “Warner Bros Discovery is a long-standing strategic partner of the Foxtel Group.
“As we have long said, optionality remains at the heart of our partnership.”
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Nathan Jolly is the Features Editor at Mumbrella. He joined the team in July, 2023.
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I now see why they went for different brands for Kayo and Binge. I couldn’t understand why you would create the cost of two consumer brands that you needed to support. However, if one of these (Binge) was never going to survive the loss of the content that drives its subscriptions then it makes sense to give Kayo a chance to live on without being impacted.
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@Chris
Those were heady days on the high seas, mi matey!
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RIP Foxtel then I suppose.
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Another top move from WBD. Let’s enter an already crowded space by taking content from an established player. Because its working so well in the US market, where streamers are already looking to consolidate.
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Binge is a P.O.S.that Foxtel has given little thought to, even fewer resources and even less than that, respect for their customers. I mean it will probably cease to exist having never moved into the current era technology for it’s entire existence. HBO will be 4k with Atmos on most self made content and more. It’s a decade overdue. Hopefully its not still called Max when it does arrive. Dropping HBO from the name is the most confusing move by any of the media conglomerates to date.
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This is genuinely the most unnecessary expansion. If they take all the HBO shows off of Binge, not only am I cancelling my Binge sub, I’ll go back to pirating HBO shows.
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Goodnight Foxtel/Binge.
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Kayo could easily be replacement by WBD Max/Discovery+ branding. They have great content offerings in the UK and US which could put Kayo to shame
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Is that our Foxtel buyer?
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Hubbl is starting to make more sense. In the context of this news, I feel we could assume that content will be moved over on launch of HBO Max.
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The h bulk of the stripped shows will disappear as well non Newscorp news channels from Foxtel. goodbye Discovery Channels.
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