Highlights
- HBO Max launches in UK with prices from £4.99 to £34.99 monthly.
- Paramount's $111bn takeover threatens standalone service's future.
- Platform offers HBO series, Warner Bros films and TNT Sports.
The service, starting at £4.99 per month and rising to £34.99 for its most expensive plan, offers hit HBO series including Succession, The White Lotus and The Sopranos, alongside Warner Bros blockbusters such as recent Oscar winners One Battle After Another and Sinners.
Subscribers can access TNT Sports for an additional fee, which holds rights to Premier League and FA Cup football matches.
"You're just not going to want to miss what's on HBO Max," JB Perrette, global head of streaming at Warner Bros, HBO's parent company, told The Telegraph.
Takeover clouds future
However, the launch comes amid significant uncertainty about the platform's future following Paramount's $111bn takeover of Warner Bros, which derailed Netflix's earlier $82bn bid announced just a month ago.
David Ellison, chief executive of Paramount and son of Oracle billionaire Larry Ellison, has outlined plans to fold HBO Max into the Paramount+ streaming service, raising questions about whether the UK platform will survive as a standalone service.
"It's an incredibly exciting thing, but exactly what that means and how it comes to market, I think, is still to be written," Perrette admitted. He insisted it would be "crazy" to imagine the HBO brand not surviving in some form.
Andrew Georgiou, who leads Warner Bros in the UK and Ireland, told The Telegraph "We're just trying to launch the best possible products so that, whenever they [Paramount] come to own this business, they've got the best starting point to do what they want."
The Ellisons' close ties to Donald Trump have raised concerns about potential political interference. Paramount has already faced accusations of shifting CBS news network to the Right.
HBO is banking on high-quality programming to attract subscribers, including The Pitt, an Emmy award-winning medical drama starring Noah Wyle, released alongside the launch.
The upcoming Harry Potter TV series, scheduled for Christmas release, is expected to appeal strongly to British audiences.
Warner Bros executives declined to comment on potential political interference or how Paramount's planned $6bn cost-cutting programme might affect UK operations.
