After weeks of speculation, Warner Bros. Discovery is ready to reveal some of the changes set to take place at HBO Max ahead of next year’s expected combination of the HBO Max and Discovery+ streaming services. And as expected, HBO Max will be downsizing its reality programming division.
As part of the changes, approximately 14% of the workforce will be reduced under the oversight of Casey Bloys, HBO/HBO Max’s chief content officer. That means around 70 employees (from HBO and HBO Max) who will be laid off as part of this reorganization.
As part of the changes, Sarah Aubrey, the current Head of Original Content at HBO Max, will now focus her oversight on the Max Originals drama slate. As part of the changes, she will now also work alongside the Warner Bros. Discovery International team led by Gerhard Zeiler on international program strategy. Executive Vice President Programming Joey Chavez will continue to report Aubrey as the lead on the Max Originals drama.
On the comedy side of HBO Max, the division will now report to Amy Gravitt, HBO’s head of comedy and executive vice president of programming, who will now combine HBO and Max Original Comedy into one team. Suzanna Makkos, who ran HBO Max Comedy, will now report on Gravitt.
As has been widely speculated, Max Originals’ non-fiction (aka reality team) and live-action family originals divisions will be restricted in the new arrangement. The reorganization will also affect HBO Max’s international, acquisitions, and casting teams. The rest of Bloys’ direct reports to HBO programmers remain unchanged.
Executives affected include Jennifer O’Connell, HBO Max Executive Vice President of Non-Fiction and Live-Action Family Originals; HBO Max Content Acquisitions Executive Vice President Michael Quigley; HBO Max/T-Nets Casting Exec VP Linda Lowy; and HBO Max International Originals Senior VP Jennifer Kim.
In the case of Reality, with a combined product that will soon include thousands of hours of reality TV from the Discovery side, the company didn’t think it made sense to have a group on HBO Max to continue developing and producing Reality, if this genre do this will be well covered. Existing shows like FBoy Island will continue, and there will still be staff keeping the lights on for shows like this one.
The move away from children’s content is part of the realization that building this business would need to be done at a much larger scale, and the appetite for these programs on HBO Max doesn’t justify such an investment right now.
Other affected departments include HBO Max’s casting group; HBO does not have internal casting and prefers that executives have a direct relationship with the casting director. Acquisitions, the team making third-party libraries, and HBO pay-one deals are also pulling out. With HBO’s final outside pay-one deal with “Avatar” in 2023 and the companies moving much of their entire production in-house, the need for a large acquisition group was no longer necessary. There will be some libraries paying two and three deals, but most major acquisitions will be through Warner.
And as HBO Max’s international team dwindled, insiders noted that HBO’s domestic drama and comedy teams would work with international producers and networks to develop co-productions like “I May Destroy You”; Aubrey is now accused of doing the same for Max.
Then in comedy, the decision was made to merge the HBO and HBO Max teams (while keeping drama separate) because, according to those familiar with the structure, the feeling was that the comedy sensibility was a lot were closer together.
As announced by Warner Bros. Discovery, the combined streamer HBO Max/Discovery+ will launch in the US next summer. Talks continue over what the service could be called, with options including whether to call it “HBO Max” or even just “Max,” with the debate centering on how much brand awareness “HBO” has internationally .
“At the end of the day, putting all the content together was the only way we saw to turn it into a viable business,” JB Perrette, CEO and president of global streaming and games at Warner Bros. Discovery, said during analysts last week Company earnings call. The merger of HBO Max and Discovery+ aims to reduce churn so “there’s something for everyone in the household,” he said.
In the second quarter, WBD’s total HBO Max, HBO and Discovery+ subscribers were 92.1 million, up 1.7 million from 90.4 million in the previous quarter. That’s up 22% year over year to 75.8 million on a pro forma basis.