HBO Max‘s library of HBO shows is getting smaller: A number of the pay cabler’s past series, including the Martin Scorsese-produced rock and roll drama Vinyl and the Jennifer Garner comedy Camping, have been removed from the streaming service.
Along with Vinyl and Camping, HBO Max no longer hosts the Kathryn Hahn miniseries Mrs. Fletcher, the Merritt Wever and Domhnall Gleeson comedy thriller Run and the Tim Robbins and Holly Hunter family drama Here and Now. Additionally, At Home With Amy Sedaris, which ran for three seasons on fellow Warner Bros. Discovery outlet truTV, has disappeared from the streaming service as well. (Vulture first noted the shows’ disappearance.)
HBO Max had no official comment on the removals, but a source tells TVLine that library titles simply come and go all the time across all platforms. (The HBO shows above are also still available on-demand to cable subscribers.) The streamer’s Twitter help feed has been responding to user complaints by saying: “As we work to bring together HBO Max and Discovery+, we’re making some changes to our services. Part of that process includes the removal of select content.”
This news comes as rumors swirl about a possible combination of the HBO Max and Discovery+ streaming services in the wake of newly merged parent company Warner Bros. Discovery’s first earnings report. Earlier this week, the DC Comics film Batgirl was scrapped by HBO Max, despite being filmed and in post-production. The streamer also removed a number of movies that debuted on HBO Max, including The Witches, Superintelligence and Moonshot.
“HBO Max had no official comment on the removals, but a source tells TVLine that library titles simply come and go all the time across all platforms.”
I expect NBC shows to disappear from Netflix. I don’t expect HBO originals to disappear from a streaming service with HBO in the name.
^^ THIS
Yeah, they have really screwed up HBO. When they created HBOmax and started removing the adult content, like Real Sex and he like, that was a bad sign. Whether you watched it or not, it was still original HBO content and should have been preserved. Only going to get worse from here. No point in paying for the streaming service anymore. Might as well get cable again and subscribe to HBO as a premium channel.
I dont get this at all. If they own the content already why not have it avaulable? How can it be costing them anything?
HBO MAX has to pay residuals to the actors, producers, etc of the shows/movies on HBO max.the bigger the stars the more money paid. I’m sure they look at viewership numbers to see if it’s worth keeping something on the service. New owner has to cut $3 billion.
Residuals for content on streaming services is very low in comparison to residuals paid via network TV, it’s something actors and writers unions are currently fighting for, so that the system is fairer. More than likely this is a purchase accounting decision allowing them to offset the cost of the content if they declare it unprofitable against tax owed on future company earnings.
They can start with Warner Brothers Discovery CEO David Zaslav’s $246 million compensation package! That should free up some funds for HBO Max, Warner Brothers moives, and CW projects.
100 percent truth!They should start by cutting the useless CEO’s pay. And then work their way down. I’m sick of these companies and their most useless employees (CEO’s and the like) making decisions for all of us watching. 9 times out of 10 it’s not what most of us want. The rich need knocked down a bunch of pegs.
Zazlov appears to be doing everything he can to kill HBO max, that’s a bold strategy lol
Zaslav is the last thing shows & movies see now before they die. He’s the Grim reaper of Warner Bros. Discovery.
Why would a streaming service remove their own content. Makes zero sense.
If within a certain window of time after the merger certain content can be shelved and then used as a tax offset against future profits. Content that was greenlit/created before the merger that can be shelved and used for this purpose.
The moves that HBO MAX has been making count against my decision to renew the service. I didn’t sign up just for MAX content, but all HBO content. And if I wanted Discovery+ programming, I would sign up for that service. Streamers keep making a case for a return to cable…
The only way this makes sense to me if there is some residuals or payments that continue to be made to the creators of those as long as they are available to stream.
Maybe by officially removing them, even if they were HBO/HBOMax shows, they want to stop making those payments. Not sure if they are looking to sell them to another streaming service instead.
Just because it’s a HBO original doesn’t mean HBO own it. Vinyl for example was produced by Paramount. Networks have to pay to retain rights to their originals when they arent produced in-house (technically they also have to pay when it’s in-house as the broadcast, streaming and production sides of a company are different companies under the same umbrella). HBO like Netflix usually use deals that auto-renew so they don’t lose access to their originals and only they have a break clause. So what we could save seeing is HBO either already having triggered that break cause or intended to so drop the content
Those removals has been happening since HBO Max was released here in Brazil, why don’t why TVLine is make a fuss about it.
Probably because they’re unaware of what happens on the service outside the US, since that’s where they’re based.
To quote Christopher Nolan: “Some of our industry’s biggest filmmakers and most important movie stars went to bed the night before thinking they were working for the greatest movie studio and woke up to find out they were working for the worst streaming service,”
“most important movie stars”
I have some bad news for Christopher Nolan…
A lot a people in the comments wondering why they would do this. It’s all to do with accounting and when companies merger there’s a period of time where they can shelve content and then use the cost of that content to offset tax on future earnings. Profits on content versus amount saved on tax will be getting compared for everything, if they can get more by using it to offset tax then the content will be shelved.
I’m glad that I got a 1-year subscription almost a year ago now. I don’t think I’ll be renewing. Well, at least not until whatever nonsense they are doing over there gets sorted and the dust settles. I’d be pretty ticked if I got a 1-year subscription more recently.
Somebody please stop them! They’re killing so much content! If they cut all the MAX Originals I’m not sure the subscription makes any sense at all for anybody…they better not touch the new PLL, Gossip Girl, And Just Like That…; they’re my guilty pleasures and especially the new PLL got me super hooked!!!
SAVE HBO MAX!
At this point, cable is going to make a come back. Netflix is garbage and HBO Max was the only sane service and i hear they are canceling all their shows.
I could see that happening. It feels like society at large (self included) were cleverly duped towards deregulating things that worked in favor of convenience when really we just helped redirect the money into fewer, richer pockets.
There were problems with the old model broadcast, taxi/transport/delivery, etc.. but the new way of doing business is almost always worse for the customer and sometimes the worker and/or client. Parasitic Tech.
This merger is just a sh*t show.
The husband and I had been watching At Home with Amy Sedaris as we had some free time. I check the lists of what’s coming and going every month to avoid exactly this scenario. On the upside, it’s more of a procedural kind of show, but it’s still irksome.
Do you have cable now? Check their on demand section, if you do. The story states that all these shows are still available there. I have Xfinity and was catching up on Snowpiercer when Max removed it a couple of weeks ago. It is still in their on demand.
They better leave Warrior alone. I need a season 3.
So I need to cram stream what I want to watch before more gets removed. Then next year when the new merged service is available, I’m done. I will not pay for the crap that Discovery+ puts out. If I wanted that service, I’d pay for it. Goodbye HBOMAX, seriously one of the best. Total bummer.
Tax write-off. All in the name of tax write off.
I’m not entertained by a tax write off.
Seems Hollywood just wants to self destruct. Broadcast, cable, now streaming. Nothing can be counted on.
Reason number 1 when anybody asks me why I collect physical media.
Yes! This is exactly how I feel. I don’t think cable is gonna make a comeback, like others are saying elsewhere here. My best guess: Physical DISCS are gonna make a comeback. But less likely, but still plausible in my mind– Blu Ray/DVD discs might even make enough of comeback to maybe even buoy a small comeback for Blockbuster, they might grow to more than just one location on the entire planet. Heck, I prefer the “buy or rent only the content you want” and “pay as you go” payment models over this whole new ridiculous flat-rate, monthly fee, “all you can eat buffet” of RANDOM content SUBSCRIPTION model anyway– good riddance to monthly fees, pulled titles, and companies censoring their own IP’s.
That sucks. I wanted to watch “Camping” and now I can’t. Why would they remove their HBO original content though? The merge Discovery seems like an odd pairing because Discovery+ didn’t appeal to me.
Can TVLine PLEEEASE get an update on the potential fate of The Other Two? It’s the funniest show on TV but since it’s not really a fit for regular HBO (and wasn’t even an HBO Max show to begin with) I’m now super nervous that it won’t come back.
This is a website covering news about millions of TV shows. I doubt they can make time for you to be kept abreast on the status on just one.
I’m willing to bet only a handful of people streamed these shows on Max (hell, a handful of people watched Vinyl or Camping on HBO too; I sure didn’t), which could explain they weren’t financially worth keeping. But soon after they were dropped, suddenly more and more people than that act like their favorite shows ever were dropped from the face of the earth.
Magnolia TV?
Behavioral modification programming straight out of the bible belt.
Batgirl disappears. What’s next? Lena Dunham’s “Girls”?
Sex and the City? Euphoria?
I may not be considered a full human being in my own country any longer but Religious propraganda tv gets not one red cent from me.
Good-bye HBO.