HBO Max Australia reveals its content plans

Warner Bros Discovery might still be awaiting the arrival of new owners Paramount, but until the remaining regulatory hurdles are cleared, the GM of the Australian operation Michael Brooks has told Mumbrella it is business as usual.

After a bidding war with Netflix, Paramount is going through regulatory hurdles in the US before the WBD acquisition can close. When that happens, it is expected divisions of the company will be merged globally which will likely mean Paramount+ and HBO Max will be available on one subscription. To add to the complications ad sales for Max are currently outsourced to Paramount’s biggest free-to-air rival Nine.

So when we sit down with Michael Brooks on the anniversary of the HBO Max launch, the first question had to be about the impact of a sale to Paramount.

“I obviously can’t speculate on what the plans are,” he said. “I’m not part of those discussions. What I would say is that you’ve got two iconic studios potentially coming together and that’s pretty exciting in the marketplace.”