Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos expressed his surprise at Warner Bros. Discovery's decision to rename HBO Max to simply Max, a move he believes was a mistake. In a recent interview with Variety, Sarandos stated, “We would always watch what HBO was doing, and at one point they had HBO, HBO Go, HBO Now and HBO Max. And I said, “When they’re serious, all those names will go away, and it’ll just be HBO.” I would have never guessed HBO would have gone away. They put all that effort into one thing that they can tell the consumer — it should be HBO.”
The rebranding followed the 2021 merger of WarnerMedia with Discovery. Max now combines content from HBO and Discovery+. Sarandos also offered his perspective on other major streaming players. Regarding Apple TV+, he commented, “I don’t understand it beyond a marketing play, but they’re really smart people. Maybe they see something we don’t.” On Amazon Prime, he added, “This is just me as an observer. Sports has been very effective. And I don’t know if that’s their entire strategy.”
Despite the increasing number of streaming services, Sarandos remains confident in Netflix's position. He emphasized, “Our advantage is the investment we’ve made in personalization. We are not a one-genre label. If you love documentary, Netflix is the doc house. If you love drama, it’s the drama house. As long as we have the ability to do that, we’re going to be fine.”