HBO Max Coming to Six European Countries in October

[MacRumors]

WarnerMedia's HBO Max is coming to Europe next month, the streaming service has announced. Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Finland, Spain, and Andorra will be the first to get access from October 26.

Next year, another wave of territories will be added to that list: Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Hungary, Moldova, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, and Slovenia.

Additional territory launches are also planned for next year, but there are currently no plans to launch HBO Max in France, Italy, Germany, and the U.K. This is said to be partly due to WarnerMedia having deals in place with other partners in these countries, where HBO programming is available on services such as Sky Atlantic and Now TV.

HBO Max was officially launched in the U.S. in May 2020, and has since expanded to 39 territories in Latin America and the Caribbean. Like those regions, the above European countries will gain access to content from HBO, Warner Bros., DC, and Cartoon Network.

"This is a historic moment as HBO Max lands in Europe," said Johannes Larcher, Head of HBO Max International. "WarnerMedia movies and series like Harry Potter, Game of Thrones and The Big Bang Theory are passionately consumed by fans all across Europe, and HBO Max has been created to provide them with the most intuitive and convenient viewing experience to watch these and a diverse range of other amazing titles."

HBO has yet to say what the cost of the streaming service will be in Europe, but it will make that announcement in a virtual launch scheduled for October.

Article Link: HBO Max Coming to Six European Countries in October

 

[Shoju]

I was so hoping to read “coming to Germany” there as well but apparently WarnerMedia still thinks those Sky apps are totally fine (spoiler: they suck big time. For years now. And they know it).

 

[Sparxxx]

Than you haven’t used the HBO Max app. It’s the worst from all the streaming services. Garbage. The Sky ones are light years better!

 

[Wafles]

In the beginning of media being available online, I used to fly the Jolly Roger as it were. Then streaming services came in and I started paying a monthly fee to 1 or 2 services happily for easy access to media. Now we are going back to the situation where media is so scattered along services that it’s becoming filthy expensive to watch what I want. Let alone the fact that I have found a lot of content to be just unavailable through any paid service where I live, actually impossible to watch it legally.

I now find myself going back to flying the ’ol 🏴‍☠️ more frequently. Life is a circle it seems.

 

[aphex2000]

Andorra? Might as well add the Vatican and get it 7!

 

[DrNevs]

I assume Ireland is missing out too, and is getting lumped in as the UK, as usual.

 

[McScotland]

HBO nordic has been around for years, wonder if this simply isn't a rebranding and that's why those countries gets HBO Max first in Europe. Anyways, it'll be interesting to see if HBO Max adds any value compared to HBO Nordic.

 

[teidon]

Now we are going back to the situation where media is so scattered along services that it’s becoming filthy expensive to watch what I want.

There is no reason to be "loyal customer". I just subscribe to one service, unsubscribe immediately after paying (so that I don't forget) and then next month subscribe to some other service. The services will add new episodes and movies so that when I next time subscribe to them there is plenty of content to watch.

 

[PowerMacBook]

Andorra? Might as well add the Vatican and get it 7!

You forgot Liechtenstein: 8! 😀

 

[bier-meister]

oh HBO, just cancel those partnerships with Sky, that brilliant Sky streaming service that offers a max 720p, no surround sound, no subtitles and doesn't have most content in its original language. It's utter garbage.

 

[ascender]

In the beginning of media being available online, I used to fly the Jolly Roger as it were. Then streaming services came in and I started paying a monthly fee to 1 or 2 services happily for easy access to media. Now we are going back to the situation where media is so scattered along services that it’s becoming filthy expensive to watch what I want. Let alone the fact that I have found a lot of content to be just unavailable through any paid service where I live, actually impossible to watch it legally.

I now find myself going back to flying the ’ol 🏴‍☠️ more frequently. Life is a circle it seems.

A lot of people I've spoken-to recently feel exactly the same. There's just no way the majority of people can afford to, or be willing to subscribe-to so many different streaming services, even if they are ceasing current traditional services.

I'm also at the point where I don't know if I can be bothered starting to subscribe to a service for a short period to see a certain TV show or movie exclusive, then cancel, then subscribe to something else.

I do wonder how financially viable a lot of these services are going to be in what's already a very crowded marketplace.

 

[foobarbaz]

Than you haven’t used the HBO Max app. It’s the worst from all the streaming services. Garbage. The Sky ones are light years better!

That could be true for the Apple TV apps. But elsewhere, I doubt you'll find anything worse than the Sky app.

It forgets the language I'm watching in.
It loses the playback position when turning off the iPad display.
It starts every episode in pixelated SD instead of just buffering for a second.
It requires downloading freakin' Silverlight to play on the Mac.
It's limited to 5 devices. (Not 5 devices streaming. 5 devices logged in! And you graciously may switch out 1 per month …)
And it keeps playing the same stupid trailers between episodes.

It's bad enough that even the best content in the world will not get me to subscribe again. I'll just sit out that stupid 5 year contract HBO signed.

 

[foobarbaz]

In the beginning of media being available online, I used to fly the Jolly Roger as it were. Then streaming services came in and I started paying a monthly fee to 1 or 2 services happily for easy access to media. Now we are going back to the situation where media is so scattered along services that it’s becoming filthy expensive to watch what I want. Let alone the fact that I have found a lot of content to be just unavailable through any paid service where I live, actually impossible to watch it legally.

I now find myself going back to flying the ’ol 🏴‍☠️ more frequently. Life is a circle it seems.

I read this a lot, but sorry, it just sounds like an excuse.

There was no mythical time when streaming services first appeared and one or two services gave you access to all media.

Back then, we got maybe 20% of all content and complained that the rest wasn't being sold (so we "had to" pirate it). Now 80% of all content is available for sale (so we "have to" pirate it, because we actually didn't want to pay that much). (And somehow you're actually complaining about both at the same time here.)

If you want "all the stuff" and "right away" I think it's okay to ask you to pay a lot. That's how so many streaming services can thrive and why they're motivated to produce more AAA content than ever. If you don't need it right away, you can just subscribe to one service per month and binge everything at an extremely affordable price. That model has existed for ever in movies going from cinemas to rentals to TV. It means pricing based on demand.

Wanting both immediacy and a low price isn't a valid reason for piracy. It's just something to tell yourself to justify using that loophole.

 

[Pezimak]

Another reason why I hate Sky. Because they lock down all the content so you have to pay them for a 12 or 18 month contract, they put the prices up yearly, and if you want to use their streaming service Now TV, it costs more then any other service like Netflix or Disney Plus and it charges you extra just for 1080P content and it doesn't do 4K. Sky are purely locking content to price gouge.

 

[aidler]

Yeah well. I'm in germany and have my HBO sub (now HBO max) for years now. So no problemo..😎

 

[Oohara]

HBO nordic has been around for years, wonder if this simply isn't a rebranding and that's why those countries gets HBO Max first in Europe. Anyways, it'll be interesting to see if HBO Max adds any value compared to HBO Nordic.

Yep that was my first thought too. I'm fine with the HBO Nordic content (the app is terrible of course), this feels like a possible excuse to MAX up the prices if I want to keep it. Let's see.

 

[matrix07]

A lot of people I've spoken-to recently feel exactly the same. There's just no way the majority of people can afford to, or be willing to subscribe-to so many different streaming services, even if they are ceasing current traditional services.

I'm also at the point where I don't know if I can be bothered starting to subscribe to a service for a short period to see a certain TV show or movie exclusive, then cancel, then subscribe to something else.

I do wonder how financially viable a lot of these services are going to be in what's already a very crowded marketplace.

Hmm.. Let's see. Right now I'm having Netflix, Disney+, HBO (still Go), TV+ and Pluto TV. All of these I'm paying like 40% of what I used to pay for cable TV.
My problem right now is not the price but the time (or lack thereof) to watch all these channels.

 

[DAC47]

One does wonder what will happen when the current HBO - Sky UK deal expires. Wouldn't be surprised to see HBOmax launching here as well especially as Sky is now owed by Comcast. Does Warners really want to keep suppling one of it's rivals with it's premium content?

 

[flottenheimer]

Wondering if HBO Max will simply replace HBO Nordic (which I currently subscribe to)?

 

[macar00n]

Oh good, I'm sure Europeans love having dozens of different streaming services to subscribe to as much as we do in the USA. It's so convenient and fun to sign up for and manage billing with ten different companies to watch shows and movies the 3 hours a week that I have free, and I especially like how I get billed even when I don't use them at all, it keeps me on my toes

 

[crawfish963]

I was so hoping to read “coming to Germany” there as well but apparently WarnerMedia still thinks those Sky apps are totally fine (spoiler: they suck big time. For years now. And they know it).

People upset that HBO isn’t in their country should be upset with their government, not HBO. It’s red tape from governments that hold things up.

 

[yegon]

In the beginning of media being available online, I used to fly the Jolly Roger as it were. Then streaming services came in and I started paying a monthly fee to 1 or 2 services happily for easy access to media. Now we are going back to the situation where media is so scattered along services that it’s becoming filthy expensive to watch what I want. Let alone the fact that I have found a lot of content to be just unavailable through any paid service where I live, actually impossible to watch it legally.

I now find myself going back to flying the ’ol 🏴‍☠️ more frequently. Life is a circle it seems.

Haha, same.

The idea of subbing to Sky for a few standout shows a year is an even worse value proposition to me than Apple TV+!

These days, Sky only makes sense for old people (not judging or being a ageist, merely that they will likely prefer the traditional delivery format) and football fans. I’m neither (although I’m not exactly young, heh).

 

[tubular]

Struggling to see the relevance to this site.

 

[steevn]

There is no reason to be "loyal customer". I just subscribe to one service, unsubscribe immediately after paying (so that I don't forget) and then next month subscribe to some other service. The services will add new episodes and movies so that when I next time subscribe to them there is plenty of content to watch.

This is what we do with Netflix and some others if they have something we want to watch.

No need to pay $18/mo for Netflix 4K when I could just pay for it 1-2 times per year and get exactly what I want.

we get HBO and Hulu included through our cell services and pay yearly for Disney, but if any of that changed we would still just get them 1-2 times per year.

 

[amartinez1660]

If Sky or similar is what’s keeping it from coming to Canada, then yes, can’t wait for it to expire so it could be available here too.
Isn’t that there an actual antitrust, anticompetitive, etc situation? A service is being forced (and by extension forcing its costumers) to not have it in some countries except if it is paying again a third party… I do pay already for HBO Max which I can watch when I go to the US or VPN-up, else it says it’s not available and have to susbscribe to “Crave.tv”.