Casey Bloys, the Chairman and CEO of HBO, revealed in an interview with Parrot Analytics that the rebranding of the HBO Max streaming service is aimed at parents hesitant to let their children use a streaming service with the HBO name.The fan-run Animation on HBO Max account shared a clip from the Bloys interview on Twitter. The host of the interview was entertainment industrysStrategist Brandon Katz for the Parrot Analytics YouTube channel. In the interview, Bloys brought up the elephant in the room regarding the debate over renaming HBO Max. Although Bloys values the HBO brand, he admits the cable channel's history of prestigious entertainment aimed at an adult audience can be a red flag for families wanting to use HBO Max for their kids. "If you're a parent with kids, you may not automatically think 'Oh, HBO. That's the place I'm gonna park my kid in front of,'" Bloys told Katz.
Bloys believes family entertainment for streaming services is important and says that's one of the factors being talked about in the discussion of re-naming and re-marketing HBO Max. Although Bloys praised the strong library of family entertainment from Warner Bros. Discovery and Cartoon Network, he thinks the HBO name negatively impacted the performance of the streaming platform's original offerings for kids.
He said the pause on green-lighting family originals was due to the re-evaluation of HBO Max and suggests it will be re-examined when a new identity is chosen for the streaming service. "Until we figure out what the combined product looks like and how it's marketed, we kinda wanted to pause on the kids' stuff, besides the library," Bloys said. "...I don't know what that's gonna translate to. I know we have great kids resources within Warner Bros. Discover., but we gotta get to the new combined product."
HBO Max has come under fire for the sudden cancellations and de-listings of movies and TV shows once exclusive to the platform. Animation aimed at kids was the biggest victim of the chopping block. Shows like Infinity Train were removed from HBO Max with no streaming alternative available, while original animated movies like Driftwood were canceled despite being announced a few months before. Despite Warner Bros. Discovery's commitment to the DC and Looney Tunes brands, projects like Batman: The Caped Crusader and The Day the Earth Blew Up: A Looney Tunes Movie were abandoned by HBO Max and are now being shopped to rival streaming services. HBO Max also removed half of its classic Looney Tunes library.
Source: Twitter