HBO’s subscription streaming service, HBO MAX, could be joining the Australian streaming scene as early as 2025, according to reports.
HBO shows such as White Lotus, House of Dragon and Succession are currently accessible to Australian viewers via local streaming services such as Stan and Binge.
HBO is part of Warner Bros Discovery.
At a Morgan Stanley Investor Conference, held in San Fransisco last week, Warner Bros Discovery’s head of streaming and games Jean-Briac Perrette said Max could quickly become one of the biggest streamers in Australia.
“If you think about other markets, like the two big Anglo markets, UK and Australia, our content travels extremely well. We know how well our content does on both existing legacy platforms, and it drives a significant amount of the viewership,” Perrette said.
“So the demand is there, and there’s unquestionably easy access because, ultimately, we don’t have a huge amount of local originals we have to invest in. There’s not a lot of other costs. And so those are markets where we are very confident […] of being successful in a relatively short period of time.”
There had been reports that HBO Max would launch in Australia as early as 2022, however, this seems to confirm it.
It is not clear when HBOs existing deal with Foxtel – which sees Foxtel stream a number of its hit shows – expires. There had been reports that it would end in late 2023.
Foxtel CEO Patrick Delaney said back in October 2022 that he expects HBO to launch a direct service in Australia.
“In the case of HBO/Discovery and NBC Universal, it’s been interesting to see whether as stand alone, they’re strong enough to survive,” he said at the time.
The latest update comes after HBO announced it would be launching into the European markets this year.
Warner Bros Discovery is initially rolling out in the Nordics, the Netherlands, Iberia and Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) in spring this year.
It has not announced rollouts in markets including the UK, where it currently has a deal in place with local distributor Sky.
In the US, HBO Max exists with several different ad-tiers. The most expensive option is $20 ($30AUS) a month with ad-free 4K support, whilst the cheapest option is $10 ($15 AUS)/month for ad-supported HD streaming.
HBO Max would join existing streamers Paramount+, BINGE, Disney+, Prime Video, Netflix, Stan, Binge, Hayu and Foxtel.
