Warner Bros. confirmed in December that it’s planning to make the standalone HBO Max app available in the U.K. and Ireland later this year, and we now have an official launch date for what is widely regarded as one of the best streaming platforms around.
HBO Max will launch in those countries on March 26, so in around six weeks’ time, giving U.K. and Irish viewers access to all kinds of well-regarded goodies. For instance, HBO Max is the only streaming platform where you'll find titles such as The Pitt, House of the Dragon, Succession, Sinners and One Battle After Another, and the new Harry Potter series when it launches in 2027. There’s also tons of live sport available through the service, courtesy of TNT Sports.
It’s good news for sure, because until now, the only way for U.K. and Irish viewers to watch HBO’s content has been through Sky, via some of its satellite and streaming service packages. But even then, viewers haven’t been able to access HBO’s entire content catalogue.
However, viewers may have a tough choice when deciding which subscription they should sign up for, because HBO Max is offering no less than five different options – which is two more than either Netflix or Disney+.
The subscriptions begin with the Basic with Ads tier, which will cost £4.99 per month and allow users to stream content to two devices at once, limited to Full HD resolution. This subscription excludes new movies that stream on HBO Max following a theatrical release, however. The next tier up is the Standard with Ads offering, which costs £5.99 and provides access to the same content, together with “all of the best HBO Max shows and movies” and up to 30 downloads a month for offline viewing.
Moving on, the Standard option is quite a bit pricier at £9.99 per month, but that’s the price you have to pay to avoid seeing any annoying ads. Otherwise, it’s exactly the same as the Standard with Ads tier. Then there’s the Premium package, which costs £14.99 per month and allows you to stream in 4K resolution with Dolby Atmos sound where it’s available, and up to 100 downloads per month.
For sports fans, the only way to go is to sign up for the TNT Sports package, which is really a separate offering entirely. It’ll give you access to all kinds of live sports, including 185 UEFA Champions League games every season and every single Europa League and Conference League game. It also throws in a few Premier League games each season and lots of tennis action, including Wimbledon and the French Open. All of its live streams are in 4K and many have Dolby Atmos sound, and users will be able to stream to two devices simultaneously.
Warner Bros. said users will be able to download the HBO Max app on all major smart TVs, smartphones and tablets, and its subscriptions will also be accessible through Amazon Prime Video. It’s not clear if that’s going to change though. That’s because Netflix is currently in the process of acquiring Warner Bros. in a blockbuster $83 billion (around £62.7 billion) deal, and when that closes, it will of course become the owner of HBO Max.
Once Netflix takes possession of the app, it’s hard to see how it’ll continue to allow Amazon to share its content. And while HBO’s boss has insisted that Netflix has no plans to shut down the app, Netflix won’t actually have to keep any promises it may have made regarding that. It would seem almost logical that Netflix ultimately just integrates HBO Max’s content within its own streaming app.
For now, Sky customers will continue to enjoy access to existing HBO shows available through their current subscription, but new content such as the Harry Potter series will be exclusive to the HBO Max app.
While HBO’s subscriptions aren’t exactly cheap, the company is renowned for putting out high calibre content, and many may see it as a question of quality over quantity. HBO Max currently offers around 3,000 shows and movies in its library, while Netflix has more than 17,000 and Amazon Prime boasts 21,000.
