HBO Max To Merge With Another Streaming Service You Don’t Have (Again)

Streaming really seemed like it was going to be a life-changing innovation when it comes to watching television (or I’m just an idiot). At first, Netflix was licensing movies and shows from other companies, and it felt like they had, like, everything! However, you’d soon realize that wasn’t the case, and that you would still need to rely on your physical copies or, in many cases, your memory. One of the things I expected streaming services to be good for is lost media, but that has hardly been the case.

Some services dive deep into their parent company’s library to dig out forgotten finds. Peacock is actually pretty good at this. They have television shows and miniseries that only lasted a season, tops, and were then lost to time. I recently rewatched a Gulliver’s Travels mini starring Ted Danson that I had not seen since its premiere 30 years ago. But instances like that have been fewer and farther between, with some companies screwing up worse than others.

That has certainly been the case with HBO Max. While it has the benefit of featuring original programming (it’s not TV) from decades of HBO’s existence, there are still plenty of shows and films that aren’t on the app. To make it worse, some genius thought it was a good idea a few years ago to not only start renting out some of the company’s beloved properties (or just removing them to save two cents) to other services, while adding hours of shows about popping pimples and true crime.

HBO Max’s merger with Discovery was a disaster, which saw a rare course correction from the people in charge. Not only was most of that content removed, but they even reverted from a name change. It was a failure, and now we’re running it back for round two, baby. David Ellison, who recently threw a tantrum so powerful that it won him a bidding war for Warner Bros., has announced that Paramount+ and HBO Max will be merging into one service, but that HBO will remain independent (whatever that means).

In short, HBO Max is about to be a lot harder to navigate, many more movies and television shows will disappear, and people will be laid off by the thousands (allegedly). I don’t even mind Paramount+, but it is already a Frankenstein monster of several streaming services and much worse for it. Mixing it with HBO Max is just going to create an even worse service while delivering yet another blow to any kind of competitive field in the entertainment business. It’s a big club, folks, and it’s gonna cost ya about $25 a month (with ads) to pretend that you’re a part of it.