Yahoo News How’s Max Doing? So Far, 20% of the Viewing Goes to Discovery+ Shows
Max is all of 11 days old and we’re already getting our first usage statistics. You know, beyond the earliest “Succession” series finale viewership numbers.
In an interview with the Wall Street Journal, Warner Bros. Discovery streaming boss JB Perrette said 70 percent of HBO Max subscribers have switched to Max. All that means is (so far) seven out of 10 users of the old app have taken the action of downloading the new one; HBO Max is no longer active. On newer gateway devices, it’s a fairly automated update process; older ones will require a more manual sign-in. Those HBO Max members who have yet to download Max are still paying for the membership.
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Perrette said Max is “exceeding expectations,” and that both hours viewed (per subscriber) and total content consumed have increased each day since launch. Max launched at a fortuitous time, days ahead of the “Succession” and “Barry” series finales.
There’s also this: On HBO Max, roughly 80 percent of subscribers who entered the app would start watching content, per Perrette. In Max’s first week, it was 90 percent. However, about 20 percent of the content being watched on Max is from Discovery+. True-crime shows among the top performers, with Perrette singling out docuseries “Jared from Subway: Catching a Monster.”
When reached by IndieWire, a Max spokesperson declined to elaborate on the statistics Perrette shared with the Wall Street Journal. As we reported earlier this week, Max has more Discovery+ series and episodes than HBO series and episodes.
With Max as a combination of HBO Max and Discovery+, the standalone service of Discovery+ has lost some subscribers. “We did see an uptick in cancellations on Discovery+ very much in line with what we expected,” Perrette said.
As of March 31, HBO, HBO Max, and Discovery+ combined for 97.6 million subscribers. Warner Bros. Discovery turned a surprise profit from its U.S. streaming business in the first quarter of 2023, and company president and CEO David Zaslav now expects his direct-to-consumer business will make money over the full calendar year.
There has been at least one clear negative in Max’s first week and a half: the creators-credits snafu. The current credits screen on Max’s movie library lumps directors, writers, and producers all in one “Creators” category. You can imagine how well that went over in the filmmaking community.
Don’t worry, they’re on it. The day after Max launched, a spokesperson shared the following statement on the issue with IndieWire: “We agree that the talent behind the content on Max deserve their work to be properly recognized. We will correct the credits, which were altered due to an oversight in the technical transition from HBO Max to Max and we apologize for this mistake.”
In their interview, Perrette “took responsibility for the hiccup,” the Journal wrote, and “said he is confident that it will be resolved in the coming weeks.”
Max, like HBO Max before it, costs $15.99 per month for an ad-free experience; with ads, it’s $9.99. (There’s also a new “Ultimate” ad-free plan for $19.99 per month that allows four concurrent streams, 4K resolution, 100 offline downloads, and Dolby Atmos sound.) The standalone Discovery+ will run you $6.99/month ad-free or $4.99 with commercials.
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