HBO Max to Be Renamed ‘Max’ With Addition of Discovery+ Content

Gene Maddaus Senior Media Writer Paramount Global fired back on Wednesday in the battle over “South Park” streaming rights, accusing Warner Bros. Discovery of withholding $52 million in license fees. Warner Bros. Discovery sued Paramount in February, alleging that the company had breached its $500 million licensing deal with HBO Max by diverting “South Park” specials to Paramount+. On Wednesday, Paramount filed a counterclaim, alleging that HBO Max got everything it bargained for under the agreement, but has nevertheless withheld two required payments of $26 million apiece. The countersuit, filed in New York Supreme Court, also argues that the unpaid fees cover the 300-plus episodes of “South Park” now streaming on HBO Max, which are not in dispute in the lawsuit.

They haven’t quite killed Kenny, but Paramount Global tonight took a hard swipe at Warner Bros Discovery over South Park.

Charlie Sheen is reuniting with Chuck Lorre.The star has joined Lorre's upcoming new Max series, How to Be a Bookie, according to multiplereports. Sheen will recur in the series, which is led by comedian Sebastian Maniscalco.Warner Bros.

Joe Otterson TV Reporter Charlie Sheen and Chuck Lorre are officially back in business together, with the actor joining Lorre’s HBO Max series “How to Be a Bookie.” Variety has confirmed with sources that Sheen will recur in the upcoming HBO Max series (with the streamer set to be renamed Max in the next month). The show stars Sebastian Maniscalco and was ordered to series in October. Reps for Warner Bros. Television and HBO Max declined to comment. Sheen and Lorre previously worked together on the hit CBS sitcom “Two and a Half Men.” Lorre co-created and executive produced the show, with Sheen starring. Sheen earned four Emmy nominations during his time on the show, but infamously left in the eighth season amid a public meltdown that included his viral “tiger blood” interview with ABC News and entering drug rehab. Sheen proceeded to make a number of disparaging remarks about Lorre publicly, with Lorre killing off Sheen’s character on “Two and a Half Men.” It was revealed in the series finale that Sheen’s character was not really dead, but died in the finale when a piano fell on his head.

Even before the whole Snyder Cut situation, there were plenty of reports floating around that behind-the-scenes drama surrounded the Warner Bros. film, “Justice League,” while it was in production.

EXCLUSIVE: Time does heal all wounds. Twelve years after Charlie Sheen and Chuck Lorre’s dramatic falling out on Two and a Half Men, the pair are back in business together, reuniting on Lorre’s first Max comedy series How To Be a Bookie, I have learned.

Selome Hailu For the second week in a row, “Succession” reached its biggest audience yet. The HBO drama reached 2.6 million viewers on Sunday night, when the fourth episode of its fourth and final season debuted. That’s an improvement of 4% from Episode 3, which featured a shocking death and brought in a then-series high of 2.5 million viewers. Immediately afterwards, HBO and HBO Max premiered the fourth and final season of “Barry” with two episodes. The first episode was watched by 710,000 viewers — the most the series has seen since the finale of Season 2, which benefited from airing directly after an episode of “Game of Thrones,” HBO’s most watched show ever. Episode 2 dropped by 23% to bring in 550,000 viewers.

Jennifer Maas TV Business Writer As HBO Max morphs into Max next month, the onus is now on the marketing teams inside Warner Bros. Discovery to get the word out. While talk of a combined HBO Max and Discovery+ streamer has swirled around Hollywood for months (including the now-correct assumption that it would be named Max), awareness of the change is just now hitting consumers. That’s where Pato Spagnoletto, global chief marketing officer of direct-to-consumer at Warner Bros. Discovery, and his team will come in. They have a month — the new service launches May 23 — to educate audiences on why the streamer is dropping “HBO” from its name, and what it will now be offering — including the promise of more personalized recommendations, better positioning of kids’ content and several splashy titles, including a Max original devoting each season to adapting one book in J.K. Rowling’s “Harry Potter” series.

The last time the parent company of Warner Bros and HBO promoted the launch of a streaming service, it faced the once-a-century challenge of the coronavirus pandemic.

John Oliver greeted the Last Week Tonight viewers by taking a swing at “business daddy” Warner Bros. Discovery after announcing the rebranding of HBO Max to Max.

EXCLUSIVE: Revenge actress Madeleine Stowe and Daredevil‘s Stephen Rider have joined Andy and Barbara Muschietti and Jason Fuchs’ Max Original series, Welcome to Derry (working title), which is a prequel to New Line’s hit Stephen King film franchise, It.

Harry Potter book series by is being adapted for television. about an HP series since January 2021, but it looks like it's finally happening.

Apple TV+ has struck a multi-year content deal with Canal+ in France and will become available to all Canal+ subs in the nation plus other European territories.

A new generation of wizards! HBO announced that a new Harry Potter series was officially in the works.

While Harry Potter and Game of Thrones may have scored the biggest headlines at this morning’s newly rebranded Max launch event, one of the more understated nuggets was the handful of unscripted originals coming to the service.

Despite author J.K. Rowling coming under fire during the pandemic over her comments on transgender issues, Warner Bros has boldly stood by the Harry Potter and Wizarding World architect, in particular this morning, when it was made official that Warner Bros Discovery has greenlit a Harry Potter Max streaming series.

Shares of Warner Bros. Discovery dipped nearly 6% today as the company took the wraps off its rebranded streaming service amid a flood of new programming announcements.

Warner Bros. Discovery disappointed the children’s TV industry last year when it pulled a number of shows from HBO Max, signaling an exit from this part of the business.

Although an introductory video at Wednesday’s Warner Bros Discovery streaming event included clips of NBA star LeBron James and CNN host Anderson Cooper, the rest of the presentation was strikingly sports- and news-free.

HBO and Warner Bros. Discovery’s newly rebranded Max streaming service has ordered a previously rumored “Game of Thrones” prequel series, “A Knight of The Seven Kingdoms: The Hedge Knight” The series is based on George R.R.

Cynthia Littleton Business Editor Warner Bros. Discovery shares were down 6% at the close of trading Wednesday, on the heels of the company’s expansive presentation of its plans to overhaul the HBO Max streamer. WB Discovery shares have been battered over the past year as the company dealt with post-merger cost-cutting and management realignment. On Wednesday, the stock fell 5.8% to $14.05 on what was a down day overall for the market and a down day for most of WB Discovery’s media rivals, including Disney (down 2.5%), Paramount Global (3.3%) and Netflix (down 2%). The Dow Jones index fell a modest 38.2 points while the Nasdaq dropped 102 points, or 1%. The hourlong WB Discovery presentation was held during trading hours, at 10 a.m. PT on the Warner Bros. lot in Burbank. Wall Street’s verdict on WB Discovery’s plans is still not in, but the immediate reaction of investors indicates that the company still has a long road ahead in sorting out its profit centers in the age of streaming.