Is the new streaming service HBO Max coming to Switzerland?

You can hardly hear it anymore, but a new streaming service will be launched in May 2020. This time it is HBO Max. Series fans among you will certainly be familiar with the term HBO or Home Box Office. The US broadcaster produces high-quality series on the line and has probably landed the series hit of the decade with Game of Thrones.

Although the new streaming service bears the name HBO Max, it is actually the service of the media group Time Warner, whose film studio Warner Bros. you probably know. Warner wants it along with Netflix especially compete with Disney that just started in November (and starts with us on March 24th).

Why is the new streaming service called HBO Max when it is from Time Warner? This is relatively simple: HBO is also part of Time Warner and has a very good reputation. So you simply want to benefit from this good reputation. This has never been said officially, but it is quite obvious that this is the case.

What series and films are there on HBO Max?

Similar to Disney with its streaming service, HBO Max should have good cards in the streaming war with Netflix. This is simply because Time Warner has a huge portfolio of well-known film and series brands. In the film area, these are, for example, all DC films, Harry Potter, The Lord of the Rings, the Lego films or The Matrix.

Many well-known cartoon series such as Bugs Bunny, Looney Tunes or South Park also belong to Time Warner. In the area of ​​series, HBO Max naturally benefits massively from the eponymous television station Home Box Office. In addition to Game of Thrones, HBO also includes Westworld, Big Little Lies, True Detective, Die Sopranos, Sex and the City and Six Feet Under, for example. All of these great series will then only be available on HBO Max.

But outside of HBO, Time Warner also has the rights to some of the most famous series in the world. Warner’s portfolio is particularly huge in the area of ​​sitcoms. With Friends, you own one of the most successful and popular sitcoms in the world. Cult sitcoms such as Seinfeld, The Prince of Bel-Air and All under one roof also belong to Warner. Younger viewers will be less interested in these series, older generations in particular.

At the start of HBO Max in May, 10,000 hours of content should be available. That’s not an extraordinary amount now, but it’s respectable. The service is said to cost $ 15 a month, which is quite expensive by US standards. For comparison: Disney Plus costs around seven dollars a month in the US, Netflix between nine and 16 dollars.

There is also a trailer already:

Does HBO Max come to Switzerland?

That’s the big question. At the time, Time Warner or the parent company AT&T has not published any plans. However, the service is supposed to start in Latin America after the US launch in 2021 and then also in Europe, It is therefore realistic to launch Europe in 2022. We know from experience that Switzerland has nothing to report in the streaming market, so we can assume that the service in this country will probably not start in 2022.

Europe is becoming a complicated undertaking for Time Warner anyway, since the group has concluded so-called output deals with local providers in many European countries. What that means? That Time Warner content may be used by other streaming providers. In Switzerland, for example, the Sky Show streaming service. There are many HBO series exclusively for this.

Sky Show then announced in a press release at the end of October 2019 that the collaboration with HBO had been extended by “several years”. Unfortunately, Sky Show did not specify exactly how many “several years” are. Nevertheless, it is very unlikely that HBO Max will start in Switzerland as long as you have a deal with Sky Show. HBO and Sky are also working more and more together for series production. Most recently, for example, for Chernobyl or The New Pope. Time Warner should not be interested in ending the collaboration quickly.

Netflix also currently has various series in its program, which will run exclusively on HBO-Max in the USA from May. The license agreements with Netflix also have to expire or end before it makes sense from Time Warner’s point of view to start HBO Max in Switzerland. With such big obstacles and the small (and complicated) streaming market that is Switzerland, HBO Max is unlikely to start here in the next three years. I could also well imagine that HBO Max will not start in Switzerland by 2025.

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