HBO Max launches today

Yahoo Finance's Myles Udland, Dan Roberts, and Melody Hahm discuss HBO's newest streaming service launch.

Video Transcript

MYLES UDLAND: We've talked a lot about Netflix being a beneficiary of the stay at home trade. But we have another entrant into, I guess, what have been called the streaming wars. But really, it's just the future of content. No one is getting cable more than they used to, and this is the way we're going to consume things from now on. HBO Max launching today.

And Melody Hahm, this is really the cornerstone of the re-imagined AT&T, I guess, we can call it. The company made that huge bid for Time Warner a few years ago, and now this is kind of the day it's all been heading towards.

I guess, one, what do we know about Max, Go, HBO Now? They've kind of bundled, it seems, all of their content under the HBO branding, which is certainly new for people who thought about HBO a certain way 10 or 15 years ago.

MELODY HAHM: Oh yeah, and even a couple years ago, right? This is all under the Warner Media brand. HBO Now is the a la carte streaming option that people could just subscribe online. That's actually what I had to use. 15 bucks a month, you get all the content that you would be able to access on the HBO network. HBO Go was the digital site that you got access to if you were an HBO regular subscriber.

Now, the understanding is most of the HBO Now consumers will be automatically transferred to HBO Max. So basically, it's the same offerings. You can watch all the "Insecures." You can watch "Curb Your Enthusiasm."

But there will be new offerings, and of course, original programming, like the new Anna Kendrick show. There's a new cartoon called "American Pickle," and a lot of the other brainstorming that had come into effect just for this launch. And of course, "Friends," which people have really missed after it was removed from Netflix in anticipation of this launch.

As you mentioned, there was a lot of buildup to this point. The $15 price point originally was kind of met with a gasp, saying that's shockingly high. But then upon further thought, as you alluded to, HBO had always been seen as a premiere destination, that it would be a cut above the lot.

And so this is their attempt at really holding onto that identity, right? They're not going to play the pricing game in the way that Disney did or even Apple did. This certainly is the most expensive out there, unless you're including Netflix's premium one. [INAUDIBLE]

MYLES UDLAND: Yes, John Stankey worked-- I know, as you said, John Stankey, worked your whole life to become the CEO of AT&T, and your future rides on "An American Pickle," a film from Seth Rogen, I think. Yes, Dan?

DAN ROBERTS: Well, it's not TV. It's HBO. But after GoT, a lot of the fears were that HBO would never have a hit of that size. And of course, it's only been a year. By the way, a week ago exactly a year ago that GoT had that very disappointing series finale. So you know, #TBT for you guys.

So again, too soon, obviously, to say never again. But I do think that it is a legitimate concern for people who've already seen many of the big past hits. Now, if you want to sign up because you never saw "Sopranos," you never saw "Six Feet Under," you never saw "Big Love," you want to watch "Oz," you want to watch "The Wire," fine. There's lots of terrific shows in the old HBO vault, which were on HBO Go and HBO Now.

But point being, some of those new shows they've announced? Boy, it reminded me that I think it is a fair concern to wonder about whether HBO can come along with a brand new offering that is a must-subscribe, that makes HBO Max must subscribe. I think that's a legitimate concern.

And I do think the price tag is hefty. And maybe it's justified because it's HBO and there's just so much there. I'd also shout out, you know, in the last few weeks we've noticed just how many great movies are on HBO Go. I mean, there's a ton of movies that it has rights to.

But I think Warner Media has really spent a lot. A reminder that-- Melody mentioned "Friends," which isn't on it at launch but is coming. But also, Warner Media spent $1 billion to get "The Big Bang Theory" on HBO Max, which, woof. I know that was a huge show, but $1 billion for people to watch "Big Bang Theory" reruns? Now, granted, I'm not a "Big Bang Theory" guy, so maybe I just don't get it. But it's just remarkable to me.

I think, as Myles said, oh, streaming wars, and sort of cutely said it's really not streaming wars. It's the new way we do media. However, it certainly is spending wars. And I think there's a chance that in a few years, you look back on this time and just marvel at the money. And some of it maybe in hindsight will prove to be dumb money that some of these companies threw at individual shows. The amount paid for "Friends," the amount paid for "The Office," the amount paid for "Big Bang Theory."

MELODY HAHM: And most of the content that is forthcoming, they're reboots, right? It's a "Gossip Girl" reboot, a "Green Lantern" sort of iterative series, "Grease" the high school version. I mean, all of these, I can't really say I can get super excited about. But it is the nostalgia play. And time and time again, we have found that people actually like this kind of content, or just appealing to the masses.

And after, of course, Plepler stepped down, HBO did have a massive rebrand. It is not the HBO that sponsored the Vanity Fair Summit, right? The whole order of things-- I think this is really representative of the way that companies are trying to make money.

There isn't this allure of being totally exclusive. Or if you're going to have exclusive programming, that it would be some high brow sort of feature. These are very democratized sorts of programming options. And I think for me, yeah, it's a little bit sad, because there was this association with HBO where you automatically assumed or equated it to a decent amount of quality.

DAN ROBERTS: Nothing new under the sun. And I'll say about the reboots-- Melody said time and again, we've been surprised by how well they do. Yes, but then occasionally no. And then some of them just-- you know, there's shows that go on too long and peter out.

Remember when they brought back Arrested Development, both of those extra add-on seasons were bad and kind of, I thought, tarnished the great quality legacy of that show-- which, you know, the first few seasons, just incredible and brilliant. And then similarly, the "Gilmore Girls" revival. As a fan of the original-- yes, Myles, I'm a fan of the original "Gilmore Girls." The revival? Oof.

So boy, nothing new under the sun. There's no new ideas anymore. But if it ain't Marvel cinematic universe, the sequels, prequels, spinoffs, and redos are not guaranteed hits.

MYLES UDLAND: I kind of feel like you probably can't overspend on back catalog content. So you basically could not have spent too much money on "Friends" or "Big Bang Theory" or "The Office" or any of those, because ultimately they were going to monetize in such a way that it would end up being fine.

But that is-- I don't know, maybe I'm finding religion on some of this content spend that I'm not as offended by these big numbers as we all kind of thought we were going to be maybe in 2016 or 2017.