Overview
Make some room in your budget for a new streaming service: soon, HBO's lengthy list of must-see TV shows will have their own platform in Australia. The network's dedicated streamer Max debuted in America in 2020, and has been rolling out through Latin America, the Caribbean and parts of Europe since — and newly in Japan as well. Now, Aussie viewers will be able to subscribe sometime in the first half of 2025.
Earlier in 2024, it was rumoured that Australia was on Max's list in the next 18 months. At the APOS media and entertainment conference in Bali between Tuesday, September 24–Thursday, September 26, Warner Bros Discovery's President for the Asia-Pacific James Gibbons confirmed the Aussie launch, as well as the 2025 timing.
Exactly how the rollout will work across the Asia-Pacific region is yet to be revealed, and it won't be the same Max model everywhere. But Australia will have a direct-to-consumer setup, which means signing up directly for Max.
"We will be flexible and diverse as to how we go about it. There will be a mixture of direct service and partnership models. Our goal is to reach the fan base," said Gibbons, Variety reports.
The great streaming service rush, when new platforms seemed to appear every few weeks or so, might be a few years in the past; however, HBO bringing Max to Australia is huge news. Depending on exactly when in the first six months of 2025 that it hits, that's where you might be watching The Last of Us, The White Lotus and Euphoria when they return for their next seasons.
At present, the US network's shows largely screen and stream to Aussie viewers via Binge and Foxtel. When the former launched, boasting HBO's catalogue was one of its big selling points. The deal between Binge, Foxtel and Warner Bros Discovery — which owns HBO — was extended in 2023, but it was reported at the time that Max might debut in Australia from 2025.
Moving HBO's catalogue away from Binge and Foxtel would impact a hefty number of shows, with the network also behind House of the Dragon, A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms and any other Game of Thrones spinoffs that make it to fruition — and True Detective, And Just Like That..., The Rehearsal, The Penguin, on-the-way IT prequel series Welcome to Derry, soon-to-arrive Dune spinoff Prophecy and much, much more.
HBO's past original programming spans everything from The Sopranos, Six Feet Under, The Wire, Oz, Deadwood, Big Love, True Blood, Big Little Lies, Westworld and Succession to The Larry Sanders Show, Sex and the City, Flight of the Conchords, Bored to Death, Girls, Veep, Barry and Enlightened.
Max is launching in Australia sometime in the first half of 2025 — we'll update you when more details are announced.
Via Variety / The Hollywood Reporter. Top image: Macall Polay/Max.