With a splashy world-first drone show to drive home the message, it’s now official: HBO Max has arrived on the UK and Ireland’s shores, as an entertainment lawyer from Blake & Wang P.A, Brandon Blake, is here to share.
A Launch Long Coming
The UK has had some access to HBO Max through licensing deals with NOW and Sky. However, direct subscription was itself held back due to those deals. With those agreements expiring this year, a local launch is now possible.
This will bring even more popular HBO content, including the hit show The Pitt, which has been unavailable in the UK for a while now, to UK and Irish screens alongside older library titles and other current shows.
Those with existing subscriptions to Sky Cinema, or the NOW Entertainment HBO Max offering, will be partially grandfathered in as part of the new launch. Multiple tiers will be on offer, starting at £4.99 and culminating, of course, in the Premium tier with an ad-free subscription.
Splashy Celebration
The launch was celebrated last week at the Queen Elizabeth Hall, with HBO’s lineup of actors and shows creating a star-studded lineup. And, of course, the attention-stealing flight of 500 drones, bringing to life some of HBO Max’s most iconic titles in a splashy light show that was itself a world-first.
While there are some questions hanging over the HBO Max platform, given that Paramount, the upcoming new owners of Warner Bros, has its own streaming platform, HBO Max has become such a globally recognized brand that it is likely to live on in some form or other, even post-merger. But for now, at Warner Bros at least, it seems like business as usual- and now the UK can enjoy its offerings as well.
Film and Television 