Despite criticism for the decisions, Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav believes the company made the right decision removing a multitude of shows and movies from HBO Max. Ever since Warner Bros. and Discovery merged in April 2022, the massive new media company began to make major decisions surrounding content production across the board. While one of the company's first decisions was to stop developing new scripted shows on TNT and TBS as a cost-saving measure, recent decisions have had major impacts on their most popular streaming service, HBO Max.
While Warner Bros. Discovery boasts a collective 92.1 million subscribers between HBO Max and Discovery+, recent lineup changes to HBO Max content have shaken up the platform's public perception in recent months. With a goal of cutting costs by $3.5 billion over the next three years, the company set to work by removing content from HBO Max and canceling productions that were well on their way to being complete. In addition to removing dozens of original movies and TV shows from the streaming service, the company also canceled the release of Scoob! Holiday Haunt and Batgirl, two films that were nearly finished when they were axed.
In a report from Deadline, Zaslav defended the removal of dozens of original HBO Max shows and movies, stating everything removed would not have been helpful for Warner Bros. Discovery if it stayed. He said that while the company would not be pursuing experimentally creative projects in the future, it doesn't mean quality content will no longer be a priority. Check out what Zaslav had to say below:
The grand experiment of creating something at any cost is over.
I was recently asked if I thought the golden age of content was over. I said absolutely not. There’s nothing more important than content, people consuming more content than they ever have. But it has to be great content. It’s no longer about how much.
All those write offs… we didn’t take one show off a platform that is going to help us in any way.
Every HBO Max Removal Explained
Zaslav's statement comes to the defense of many HBO Max show and film removals that have happened in recent months. Over the summer, HBO Max silently removed six original films, including the Cole Sprouse-led Moonshot, which was pulled off the platform less than three months after its March debut. August saw the massive and sudden gutting of HBO Max originals, especially animated series that can't be found on any other streaming service, while many other titles, like Infinity Train, can still be bought individually on Amazon and iTunes. Other removed content includes the ensemble dramedy Generation, the Christmas TV movie 12 Dates of Christmas, and nearly 200 episodes of Sesame Street.
Given the removal of many original titles and dozens of films and TV shows overall, Zaslav seems adamant in parsing down the number of shows and movies Warner Bros. Discovery devotes their money to. His insistence that less experimental content can coincide with quality projects could be a worrying statement for some, though, as risky moves in the past - like green lighting Game of Thrones and Westworld on HBO - have led to commercial and critical success. But with Westworld's recent cancelation, despite season 4's critical praise and the show's 54 Emmy nominations across its first three seasons, it appears Zaslav won't be taking any chances to ensure Warner Bros. Discovery reaches its cost-cutting goals. It's likely that, as 2023 sees HBO Max and Discovery+ merge into a single streaming service, even more content will be cut from the catalog in the near future.
Source: Deadline