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Has HBO Max scrapped its India plans?
Reports suggest that Warner Bros. Discovery has ended the global roll-out of its streaming service.
As Indian viewers await the launch of HBO Max in India, international reports state that Warner Bros. Discovery (WBD) has ended the global roll-out of its streaming service.
While the fate of it launching in India still remains unclear, a Television Business International report says that it has scrapped its launch in Iceland, Greece and the Baltics.
A Variety report on Monday revealed that WBD will no longer produce originals for HBO Max in the Nordics (Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Finland), Central Europe, the Netherlands and Turkey.
Launched in the United States in May 2020, HBO Max began its global rollout last year. Starting in markets across Latin America and the Caribbean, it went onto launch in the Nordics and Spain.
Reports last year had suggested that the streaming service which offers all the HBO content including originals, sitcoms, web shows, and movies, was expected to enter the Indian market after it's plan details were leaked online.
However, in its last earnings call in March 2022, CEO and president David Zaslav said that it will not be launching into any new markets for the time being. “We will not sort of chase aggressively behind subscriber growth as long as we are working on this priority one, which is getting these products together,” he said.
Moreover, in a recent restructuring undergone by the company last month, Arjun Nohwar, GM, Warner Bros. Discovery, India was made the general manager of Discovery Communications, India. He was previously responsible for the launch of the streaming service in India.
After the merger of WarnerMedia and Discovery, its streaming services, Discovery Plus and HBO Max, were combined into one streaming service. HBO Max could possibly enter India as part of this combined service as well.
While speculations over the fate of the streaming service in India abound, there is no clarity on the exact plans. afaqs! had written to Warner Bros. Discovery asking about the same, but has not received a response until the time of filing the story.