What The Fuck Is Going On With HBO?


by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

Let me be clear — I’m just a doofus in the middle of nowhere. No one listens to me. But I’ve known of HBO my entire life and I’m worried about its future. WarnerMedia (AT&T) simply has no idea what the fuck its doing with the brand. Either just call their streaming service “HBO” or call it “Warner+.”

To have this bastard child known as “HBO Max” is to not only confuse the market but degrade the great, great HBO brand mindshare. It just makes no sense, any of it.

In passing, I would note when you’re fighting against the streaming behemoths of Disney+ and Netflix, you probably need to dig a little deeper to catch people’s attention. I know of the simultaneous release decision for big movies on HBO Max…but that seems like a gimmick.

If I was either HBO Max or Paramount+ I would take things to the next level with content and emulate Disney+ by dusting off the old — and rarely seen — back catalogue.

Anyway. No one listens to me.

WarnerMedia’s Branding of Its Streaming Services Is So Very Dumb


by Shelt Garner
@sheltgarner

There are, like, a half-dozen (it seems) HBO variants. HBO Go. HBO Max. The list goes on. With a legacy brand with massive “mindshare” and cultural reach like HBO, WarnerMedia should simply turn HBO into its version of Netflix and be done with it.

Why have all these different versions of HBO when HBO was Neflix before Neflix was Neflix. I guess they want to keep the passive-media brand going? But that’s lazy on their part.

It make so much sense to funnel all of WarnerMedia’s content through one brand — HBO.