The arrival of HBO Max in France is postponed

It is a launch that never ceases to be desired. Ultimately, the future of SVoD service HBO Max is more uncertain than ever on European territory.

So that France will finally not be served at the beginning of next year.

A disturbing delay

Last April, we learned from the statements of a representative of the platform that HBO Max was to land in six new countries before the end of the year. For the moment, the service is only accessible from about twenty territories and France is precisely one of the main concerned by this future launch. Warner thus intended to deploy HBO Max in France at the start of 2023. But this will unfortunately not be the case.

It is through a press release published this week that we learn of the postponement of HBO Max on French soil. No new release date or even period was given. In addition, the negotiations currently being held with possible future distributors of the service have been completely suspended. A sudden halt which can be explained by various factors.

A strong period of trouble for SVoD

Part of the explanations can be found in the merger between Warnermedia and Discovery. The new structure named Warner Bros. Discovery is indeed experiencing difficulties in its implementation. But that’s not all, because the SVoD market in general is going through a strong zone of turbulence. Netflix’s results for the first quarter of 2022 are irrefutable proof of this.

The deployment of HBO Max in 190 countries by 2026 is thus very compromised. At the same time, Warner also launched a vast plan to save around 3 billion dollars. Savings that lead to the net stoppage of several local productions that should have arrived on the platform. Many European countries are impacted by the measure which will inevitably lead to layoffs in this sector.

It remains to be seen whether the many SVoD players will manage to raise the bar. Most companies having seen their respective redemption value collapse over a year, mergers between different companies could revive the machine.

Source : Postcode Council