An NZ launch for ‘super streamer’ Max, eating Sky’s HBO lunch? Not so fast

Like one of the fungal zombies in The Last of Us, direct-to-consumer apps will continue to get closer and closer to Sky’s door.

A breathless report yesterday said the new “super streamer” service Max was “confirmed” for New Zealand.

Max will hinge on hit HBO content like White Lotus, The Last of Us, and Succession, which makes it look like it could eat Sky TV’s lunch. It will also be used to juice some new HBO shows, including a second Game of Thrones spinoff and a series based on the Harry Potter books.

But the company behind the service won’t name New Zealand as one of its launch territories, and a local launch - or at least a full-blooded local launch - doesn’t gel with Sky’s account of its content rights.

Max, due to launch on May 23, is a reboot of the direct-to-consumer service formally known as HBO Max, which has enjoyed only moderate success.

The idea is to expand Max now that its new owner, Warner, has merged with Discovery (the pair hooked up in April last year). The idea is to push an expanded Max that could go head-to-head with global streaming heavyweights Netflix, Disney+ and Amazon Prime Video.

New Zealand is not specifically on the Max radar. Approached for comment Warner Bros Discovery’s local operation would only reiterate the firm’s line that “We plan to roll out Max in key Asia Pacific territories later in 2024″.

A spokeswoman would not comment on NZ specifically, but it looks like the door is shut - or mostly shut.

And late 2021, as it renewed a multi-year HBO deal, Sky said it covered exclusive NZ broadcast and streaming rights to HBO, Warner Bros. TV & Movies and HBO Max Original content (and indeed, HBO Max continued to geo-block Kiwis).

There was one bit of wiggle room for a local l launch: The Sky-Warner deal did not cover third-party content that features on Max, Sky confirmed. But given that Max’s crown jewels are HBO inhouse productions, it’s a very small wiggle.

Today, Sky did not want to discuss the finer points.

“As a long-standing partner of ours, we look forward to navigating the future with Warner Bros. Discovery if and when Max enters the market,” Sky’s Chris Major said.

“We don’t share details of our contract terms, but we’re happy with the HBO, HBO Max, Discovery and Warner Bros. TV content on both Neon and Sky, which we currently have both exclusively and co-exclusively [non-exclusively] in this market. And, of course, the beauty of our new Sky Box is the ability for our customers to easily access apps alongside Sky and free-to-air content.”

Sky typically signs five-year deals, but would not say how long the Max deal extends - which will give Max fans some hope (and no doubt Warner Bros Discovery will use the threat of a local Max launch as leverage when it negotiates the renewal.)

The broadcaster did shift to a non-exclusive deal when it renewed its rights with Discovery, which was not a major surprise given Discovery’s (then) pending purchase of MediaWorks TV (aka Three) and its plans to take Discovery+ global. But it seems from Warner Bros Discovery comments this week that Discovery+ will continue to cut its path, and not contribute content to Max. For whatever reason, Discovery+, launched in March 2020, has not been launched in NZ. We’ve been in a “soon” holding pattern for about 18 months now. When it does appear locally, it will be no skin off Sky’s nose since it’s already “co-exclusive” as it likes to style it.

Some Kiwis will say, “Whatever, I’ll just fire up a VPN to pretend I’m in the US”, and access Max anyway.

That could be tricky. When Warner first launched HBO Max, it took a much harder line on geo-blocking than Netflix, employing what could be termed a “guilty until proven innocent” approach to those using virtual private networks or other software that masks a user’s location. VPN users were blocked unless they could provide proof they were a US resident.

The staunch approach to geoblocking drove some Kiwi streamers crazy, but helped Sky execs sleep soundly at night.

Like one of the fungal zombies in The Last of Us, direct-to-consumer apps will continue to get closer and closer to Sky’s door - and some will follow Disney+ by giving it a good bite on the arm. But not Max. At least, not in the next couple of years.

Sky shares were up 0.4 per cent to $2.64 in early afternoon trading.