Re-branding is a tricky path to go down. Once a brand is embedded with their audience, it’s difficult to get them used to a new name. Case in point: Mark Zuckerberg officially changed Facebook to Meta in 2021; however a majority of users still call the social media app Facebook.
Then there’s Twitter. When Elon Musk took the reigns, Twitter simply became “X.” Following the rebrand there was a 4% drop in the first week, according to reports.
Users and audiences like consistency. Look at Netflix – same logo, same name and it remains the #1 paid-for streaming platform as of 2025.
Now, just when we were getting used to saying “Max” instead of “HBO,” the streaming platform is changing it up yet again. They just announced that Max will revert and rebrand back to HBO Max starting this summer.
HBO (Home Box Office) was founded in November of 1972. In 2020, HBO became HBO Max. Then, HBO Max officially changed its name to “Max” in May of 2023.
Are you still with me? I’m confused too.
Apparently the goal is to “unify content from HBO, Warner Bros. and Discovery,” placing all networks under a single platform. They announced this at Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) Upfront presentation in New York.
It was also revealed that WBD’s streaming business has turned around its profitability by almost $3B in just two years and scaled globally with 22M subscribers added over the past year, with a path to over 150M+ by the end of 2026.
Is this the end of HBO’s rebranding saga? Time will tell.
