EVP Jamie Cooke oversees the Central and Eastern Europe, Middle East, North Africa, and Turkey regions.
The transition from HBO Max to Max in Hungary marks a significant milestone for Warner Bros. Discovery, with the company saying it will offer an enhanced viewing experience with a wealth of new content. Executive vice president Jamie Cooke shares insights into the launch, its impact, and future plans.
Warner Bros. Discovery’s rebranding of HBO Max to Max brought a wave of excitement to the Hungarian market. Officially launched on May 20, Max offers an extensive library of content.
Jamie Cooke, who oversees the Central and Eastern Europe, Middle East, North Africa, and Turkey regions (and whose official title is a veritable alphabet soup: EVP & MD CEEMENAT, EMEA Creative & Pay TV), discusses the transition, new features, and strategic initiatives aimed at engaging subscribers and supporting local content production.
BBJ: How has the introduction of Max affected the Hungarian subscriber base compared to HBO Max?
Jamie Cooke: The transition from HBO Max to Max was smooth; our subscribers simply had to download the Max app on their devices, register with their HBO Max credentials and continue their journey through the content that they were already watching and, in addition, enjoy the many novelties that Max brings.
This was one of the objectives we had from the very beginning: to make this process as easy as possible for our subscribers, who now can discover more than double the content on Max vs. HBO Max. And I’m happy to say that the process was successful and easy for all our subscribers.
BBJ: What new features does Max offer compared to the previous service?
JC: Max is our newly enhanced streaming service and combines the amazing content HBO Max brought with unmissable documentaries and reality shows from the Discovery portfolio, blockbuster movies, kids content, live premium sports from Eurosport, and so much more. We are now able to offer all our great content in one place. Within Max, there is something for everyone in the household.
It combines extraordinary stories from across WBD’s extensive iconic brands, including HBO Originals, Max Originals, Warner Bros. films, the DC Universe, kids’ content and best-in-class programming across sports, reality, lifestyle, food, home, true crime and documentaries from Eurosport, Discovery, TLC, Food Network, HGTV, ID and much more.
Since first launching Max in the United States and Latin America, we’ve learned and listened to customer feedback and have a new tech platform that delivers a better, more premium experience. As a result, we’ve seen our scores on the app store improve significantly in these markets. We’ve also built a smarter product that enables us to test, automate, and deploy changes quickly; this is critical as we begin to scale globally.
The platform has been withstanding a high volume of concurrent traffic during tentpole moments. We know a solid product experience helps engagement, which ultimately reduces churn. In addition, Max also offers a choice of different base plans. We’ve got Standard and Premium plans, plus a sports add-on that can be added to any base plan. In nine European markets, we also have a Basic with Ads plan available, which allows users to enjoy Max at a lower price and includes advertising. In the region I have in my remit, we offer ad-lite in Romania and Türkiye for BluTV and for the rest of the countries, we are assessing the opportunities.
BBJ: How did you select local content, and can we expect more of it in the future?
JC: As we think about local, original content, we have a robust slate with last year’s titles like the drama series “Spy/Master,” and documentaries like “30 Coins,” “First Five,” “Happy Man,” “Apollonia, Apollonia,” and this year with “Vika!,” “Nasty: More Than Just Tennis,” and “Emma & Eddie.” Our team handling local productions and documentaries is closely working with producers, directors, and writers, searching for interesting stories that have local relevance and the potential to create scale with powerful storytelling that can travel in multiple countries and regions. It’s a permanent work in progress, and our interest in local content and documentaries is constant.
BBJ: What strategies are you using to engage younger generations with Max’s content?
JC: Max brings a combination of offering the very best content in the entertainment business from some of the most iconic brands we know audiences love and making it easy for them to watch that content through a smooth product experience with Max. We’ve built an entirely new tech platform, which is designed to deliver a better, more premium viewing experience.
It’s also about making Max available to as many people as possible and in a way that suits the way they watch their favorite content. We have more than 150 partnerships across Europe with some of the region’s biggest telco providers to make it simple for people to access Max through bundling deals. Max is also available on major platforms such as Android devices, iPhones, gaming consoles and streaming devices, so people can watch however they like. Ultimately, we know a strong product experience helps engagement, which in turn reduces churn. We’ll continue to innovate on the platform over time to provide a truly unique personalized viewing experience for subscribers. The first taste subscribers will get of this will be during the Paris 2024 Olympic Games. Max will be the only place to stream every live moment of Paris 2024, and we’re giving fans the chance to watch it in an entirely new way.
This article was first published in the Budapest Business Journal print issue of July 12, 2024.