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HBO Max revealed, will snatch Friends from Netflix

CyberPanda

Banned
Get ready to make “Friends” with HBO Max: That’s the name of WarnerMedia’s new direct-to-consumer streaming service, set to launch in the spring of 2020 with 10,000 hours of content, including all episodes of ’90s hit “Friends.”

However, WarnerMedia still hasn’t announced pricing for the service, which will compete with Netflix, Hulu, and Disney Plus, among others.

HBO Max will combine content from HBO with a slate of originals and programming from Warner Bros., New Line, DC Entertainment, CNN, TNT, TBS, truTV, The CW, Turner Classic Movies, Cartoon Network, Adult Swim, Crunchyroll, Rooster Teeth, and Looney Tunes.

New deals with Warner Bros. Television and others for HBO Max announced today include:
• The exclusive streaming rights at launch to all 236 episodes of “Friends” — one of the biggest hits on television and in streaming
• The exclusive streaming rights at launch to all episodes of fan favorites “The Fresh Prince of Bel Air” and “Pretty Little Liars”
• The exclusive streaming home to a string of new Warner Bros.’ produced dramas for The CW beginning with the fall 2019 season, including the highly-anticipated new DC Entertainment series “Batwoman,” and “Katy Keene” (spinoff of “Riverdale”)
• New exclusive movie production deals with Greg Berlanti, one of Hollywood’s most prolific and successful producers, and Reese Witherspoon, Academy Award® and Emmy Award®-winning actress and producer; Berlanti will produce an initial four movies focused in the young adult space, while Witherspoon’s Hello Sunshine will produce at least two films.

WarnerMedia Sets ‘HBO Max’ as Name of Streaming Service, Will Include All Episodes of ‘Friends’ Exclusively

Streaming wars are getting heated now.

PR Video:

 
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brap

Banned
Friends and Fresh Prince on HBO? So weird. I mean I know it's a streaming thing but it's still HBO.
 

DKehoe

Gold Member
So is this a different service than HBO Go? Or is that just being rebranded and getting additional content?
 

Zangiefy360

Banned
What a horrible and confusing name. HBO Go, HBO Now, and now HBO Max. HBO is a brand that's firmly established for movies and top-tier original programming, it's not meant to be a huge umbrella for everything Warner.
 

Pallas

Member
Good thing Netflix is making their own content now but yeah it’s getting a bit ridiculous now, HBO Max? Ffs
 

sol_bad

Member
In a way, it's less splintering if you are a streaming only person.
It includes all HBO, Warner, DC and even Crunchyroll content! If you already have HBO, yes the price might go up an extra $5 or $10 but that's still cheaper than paying for HBO + DC + Crunchyroll and your getting more content.
 

lock2k

Banned
I'm currently rewatching Friends because my wife insisted.

I wasn't keen on doing this at first because I thought "oh, it will be too dated" but then I started having a lot of fun because things are so cool (and not woke in the slightest) I miss having a show like that. OK, we will just watch it while it's on Netflix.

But this streaming divide is doing wonders for torrents because people are not going to subscribe for 15 services at the same time.
 

jadedm17

Member
A lot has been made about the content Neftlix is losing, but honestly almost none of it matters to me in the slightest. I'm probably an outlier though.

Mostly agree, but it hurts.
Netflix originals have kept me this far but at the same time theyve been canceling shows without resolution(poor Santa Clarita) so after a decade i may be at the end of my run. :\
 

Kenpachii

Member
What a fucking mess this has become. Good thing for torrents.

I got hbo and netflix bundled in my ISP contract but still torrent there shows lul.

Now i never get a guilt trip if something that is gone or not included when downloading those shows. Because i think i already paid for it.

Ez
 
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kegkilla

Banned
I got hbo and netflix bundled in my ISP contract but still torrent there shows lul.

Now i never get a guilt trip if something is gone or not included when downloading those shows. Because i think i already paid for it.

Ez
You can get much better quality (as compared to the streaming/broadcast version) if you grab a blu-ray version of an HBO show. Game of Thrones was night and day.
 

Ol'Scratch

Member
Shit is getting out of hand. Everyone wants their own paid streaming service. Soon the cheapest legal option will be to have cable again
 
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sol_bad

Member
I got hbo and netflix bundled in my ISP contract but still torrent there shows lul.

Now i never get a guilt trip if something that is gone or not included when downloading those shows. Because i think i already paid for it.

Ez

Cmon, if you pirate than be happy that you pirate. Don't try and make up stupid excuses to try and make yourself happy or make the fact that you pirate seem ok. What you are doing is essentially the same as renting a DVD and copying it to keep forever.
"It's ok, I already paid for it."

No, no you didn't pay for it. You pirated it. Stick to the facts ya'll.
 

Pimpbaa

Member
So many streaming services. This is just going to push people to pirating or go back to cable/satellite/fiber op tv.
 
A lot has been made about the content Neftlix is losing, but honestly almost none of it matters to me in the slightest. I'm probably an outlier though.

I dumped Netflix a couple months ago and haven't noticed at all. I'm glad I stuck with Uverse to be honest. It has everything I need. Live Sports, News, Movies, and I can catch Friends, Seinfeld and a good number of older shows in syndication.
 
D

Deleted member 752119

Unconfirmed Member
This should be posted in gaming as a warning of things to come. Couple weeks ago I could swear someone tried convincing me streaming might be good for consumers.

I don't see the issue personally.

There's no reason to have multiple streaming service simultaneously IMO. Bounce between Netflix, Hulu, HBO etc. when there's a full season of something you want to binge or a bunch of movies added you want to watch. Watch those and bounce to another service.

Same with gaming. Buy a month or two of Gamepass when there's something you want to play, bounce to EA Access when done if there's something you want to play there, or to PS Now or whatever.

It doesn't work for people who want constant access to all their media--but these services aren't for them. That's why they still sell DVDs and Blurays and Physical games and why there are various stores to buy digital copies of things. These download/streaming services are for people who "one and done" content and don't care to own it. It's way cheaper than buying and can be cheaper than cable/satellite depending on how much different content you need (we keep cable as my wife watches a ton of different channels and I watch a ton of sports).
 

mckmas8808

Banned
It's like PC gaming and TV are having a competition to see who can be the most anti-consumer.

This is actually PRO consumer. Nobody says you have to able to watch every tv show in history for one price and under one company. I'd rather this happen, than for Netflix to keep increasing their price so that in 2025 it cost $25 a month to have it.
 
I dumped Netflix a couple months ago and haven't noticed at all. I'm glad I stuck with Uverse to be honest. It has everything I need. Live Sports, News, Movies, and I can catch Friends, Seinfeld and a good number of older shows in syndication.

I understand. I probably wouldn't notice too much if I dropped Netflix either. I had YouTubetv and it was a nice service, but I dropped that a while ago. Honestly I could drop all non-interactive entertainment without being bothered really.

I'd rather read, play games and do other things anyway.
 

Ornlu

Banned
What a horrible and confusing name. HBO Go, HBO Now, and now HBO Max. HBO is a brand that's firmly established for movies and top-tier original programming, it's not meant to be a huge umbrella for everything Warner.

I foresee things not going well for them in the near future; maybe they can limp along until their next GOT level hit?
 

Birdo

Banned
This is actually PRO consumer. Nobody says you have to able to watch every tv show in history for one price and under one company. I'd rather this happen, than for Netflix to keep increasing their price so that in 2025 it cost $25 a month to have it.

You're right. Why pay for one subscription, when you can pay for five per-month?

They really are spoiling me. I only wish I could spend more money on them.
 

mckmas8808

Banned
I foresee things not going well for them in the near future; maybe they can limp along until their next GOT level hit?

HBO every year has good original content.

You're right. Why pay for one subscription, when you can pay for five per-month?

They really are spoiling me. I only wish I could spend more money on them.

But one company literally can't afford to own all the content created from now-back to 1980. It's just not possible. Just pay for what you want. And don't forget, every one of these TV shows has DVD and Blu-ray sets that you can own for ever.
 
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tkscz

Member
Well shit, I honestly didn't think they would do it. WB has a HUGE backlog and I always felt it was really fucking stupid they had like 5 different streaming services (HBO Go, DCUniverse, Cartoon Network, Adult Swim and TBS) with two of them needing a damn cable services just to get them. But to not only bring those together but also TCM, TNT, Rooster Teeth, Crunchy Roll, those last two I didn't know they owned (maybe AT&T owned them) just makes this above and beyond what I would expect. Now if they price it right it could EASILY take Disney+. Honestly with HBO and DCUniverse, it has me show wise. Chernobyl and Doom Patrol are fucking amazing. However, that name feels like the same mistake Nintendo made with the Wii U. People aren't going to get that it's all Warner media content, they'll assume it's HBO Go under a new name. They are going to have to advertise the shit out of the content it has.

But one company literally can't afford to own all the content created from now-back to 1980. It's just not possible. Just pay for what you want. And don't forget, every one of these TV shows has DVD and Blu-ray sets that you can own for ever.

I can understand his annoyance with it, the entire point of the single streaming service that Netflix use to be was to avoid what cable was, constant subscription fees for more channels and having groups of channels taken when you don't want to pay as much. But you're right, no one company could ever pay that amount of money to keep all those shows on their service. It's FAR more cheaper for the company who owns all that content to put it out themselves as they don't have to pay any kind of licensing to do it. As it stands, once HBO Max (getting Wii U vibes from that name) and Disney+ hit, those will be the only two you need until one of them buys out Viacom or Viacom makes it's own streaming service.
 
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What a horrible and confusing name. HBO Go, HBO Now, and now HBO Max. HBO is a brand that's firmly established for movies and top-tier original programming, it's not meant to be a huge umbrella for everything Warner.

This is due to Richard Plepler who was running HBO since 1992 resigned after the AT&T buyout, and trying to squeeze him out. Looks like it's already apparent that the new head of HBO John Stankey is already fucking it up. HBO was always done its own thing that basically carried Warner. Now watch it go down. I would love to see Richard Plepler go to Netflix.
 

Kenpachii

Member
Cmon, if you pirate than be happy that you pirate. Don't try and make up stupid excuses to try and make yourself happy or make the fact that you pirate seem ok. What you are doing is essentially the same as renting a DVD and copying it to keep forever.
"It's ok, I already paid for it."

No, no you didn't pay for it. You pirated it. Stick to the facts ya'll.

I paid for it, did you not read?

I am lazy, and i will do whatever i can to make my life easier.

Back when digital wasn't a thing. i was already digital.

When i bought a game, i would write the key into a wordpad and have my whole key collection into a file so i could ditch my collection in the basement to never be looked at again and later on i even throw them away straight away after i had the key because i had to patch it anyway.

When i needed to play a game i would download the game, input the serial and done.

Always up to date and no problems there. Couldn't be bothered with discs etc. Never understood why the company's didn't had a file for me to download straight from there site.

Hell even blizzard started to adopt with wow and future was born.

U either serve or get ditched by progress.
 
I think that the battle will be ruthless, but over the next couple of years some of these streaming services will die, others will be merged or get bought out. At the end of it, there will be a few big ones standing.


Just like in the music space you got a lot, but its really all about Apple Music and Spotify. Everything else is much much less important and rarely get exclusives.
 
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