The ‘HBO’ is coming back to Max

Warner Bros. Discovery is changing the name of its streaming service back to HBO Max. During its Upfront event on Wednesday,  the company announced that it will rebrand Max this summer, a change HBO head Casey Bloys said “better represents” its offering.

HBO Max launched in 2020, but Warner Bros. Discovery relaunched the service three years later, filling it with content from its other properties, like Discovery, TLC, and HGTV. As part of the relaunch, it renamed the service to just “Max” to signal that it’s suitable for kids and families.

That strategy likely didn’t pay off, as the service has become more and more HBO-like over the past year. It rebranded The Penguin and Dune: Prophecy as HBO Originals, instead of Max Originals, and tested a bunch of always-on HBO channels. In March, Warner Bros. Discovery debuted a new logo that closely aligns with HBO’s branding.

The company said in a press release that “returning the HBO brand into HBO Max will further drive the service forward and amplify the uniqueness that subscribers can expect” from the service.

“The powerful growth we have seen in our global streaming service is built around the quality of our programming,” Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav said in a statement. “Today, we are bringing back HBO, the brand that represents the highest quality in media, to further accelerate that growth in the years ahead.”