- Max (formerly HBO Max) is officially launching in Australia during the first half of 2025.
- Currently, it’s unclear how this development will impact Foxtel Group’s exclusivity agreement for HBO content.
- The streaming service’s arrival is just the latest indication of an increasingly crowded market.
Ready to pay for another subscription?
After months of speculation, Max (formerly HBO Max) is finally set to land in Australia. During the recent APOS conference in Bali, Warner Bros’ Asia-Pacific president James Gibbons announced the long-awaited antipodean expansion.
RELATED: After All That, We’ve Simply Reinvented Cable Television
“We can also confirm we’ll be launching our direct service in Australia in the first half of next year; that’s definitely happening,” said Gibbons.
This comes a little over a year after Foxtel Group broke out its $2.5 billion war chest to successfully negotiate the renewal of its “multi-year” HBO content exclusivity agreement with Warner Bros Discovery.
While details surrounding Max’s local launch are still being kept under wraps, one can imagine how this will affect the likes of Binge and Foxtel GO. But for those of you who need it sounded out — the vaunted HBO content catalogue’s grand exodus would be a major blow.
“If you think about other markets, like the two big Anglo markets — UK and Australia — our content travels extremely well,” Jean-Briac Perrette, Warner Bros Discovery’s Global Head of Streaming & Games, said at a Morgan Stanley Investor Conference earlier this year.
“We know how well our content does on both existing legacy platforms, and it drives a significant amount of the viewership. 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.”
Perrette added that the company would be “crazy not to do it” and simply “leaving money on the table” with its current license deals.
It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to frame this as the final nail in the coffin for the Rupert Murdoch empire’s late-stage attempt at streaming. As The Sydney Morning Herald has previously pointed out, Binge — which boasts approximately 1.55 million subscribers — has been stagnating in growth over the past year.
Without its most prominent selling point — and considering the limited UX it offers when compared to the likes of Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, and Disney+ — its market share could be surrendered overnight.
RELATED: The Next ‘Game Of Thrones’ Spin-Off Is Almost Here — Check Out The First-Look Teaser
Though the disastrous final act hasn’t been written just yet.
Given Foxtel Group’s latest venture in the streaming bundle Hubbl, the HBO partnership could very well find a second life in which both the domestic and international players notch a win, i.e. Foxtel/Binge keeps getting a taste of the action, Max reaches scale right from the jump.
Plus it’s worth noting that both Foxtel Group and Warner Bros Discovery have maintained they would preserve “future flexibility” when it comes to sharing our sunburnt nation. Speaking to the AFR, a Foxtel spokesman stated:
“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.”
Curious about what else is coming to the streaming giants?
Check out everything coming to Netflix Australia and everything coming to Amazon Prime Video Australia.
If it’s feature-length entertainment you’re after, check out the best movies on Netflix Australia right now and the best movies on Amazon Prime Video Australia right now.
And if you’re looking to add to your streaming stack, take a look at our round-up on the best streaming services in Australia.
Related Articles:
