Why WBD & Max have it all to prove in 2025

Eighteen months ago, HBO veteran Casey Bloys was happy to admit that not only was the industry in the middle of a seriously rough storm but there was no telling when the turbulence would end.

Fast-forward to a rain-soaked December night at Warner Bros Discovery’s UK HQ, and the feeling in the room was quite different.

Storms were battering pedestrians on London’s darkened streets, but inside, the chairman and chief exec of HBO and Max content suggested a more optimistic forecast.

Local European productions

For producers across Europe, it certainly seems like the blackouts – at least the ones WBD put in place across swathes of the continent as costs were being cut in 2022 – are beginning to lift.

France, which navigated the worst of the cost saving to continue production, unveiled two new dramas this week – six parter Privileges and political thriller Paolo – while there were recommissions and fresh programming from Poland and across Latin America.

Yet it wasn’t so much the hard news lines that underlined the shifting emphasis on international. As with so much in the world of entertainment PR and messaging, it came down to who’s in the room.

The answer was all the big guns: content chief Bloys; chief exec and president of global streaming & games, JB Perrette; president of international, Gerhard Zeiler; LatAm entertainment chief Mariano Cesar; France’s head of originals Vera Peltekian.

Talent was in play, too: Salma Hayek Pinault, with Like Water for Chocolate; upcoming Harry Potter series showrunner Francesca Gardiner and director Mark Mylod; The Seduction’s Diane Kruger.

And the message they wanted to deliver was clear: WBD wants to be back in the international game, and it wants you all to know about it.

“Part of the reason for doing this today is so you can see [international programming] is very much a part of what we are doing going forward in many territories,” Bloys said, as he took to a single stool in front of journalists to take 30 minutes of off-the-cuff questioning.

Direction of travel

Referencing the “great Netflix correction” – which probably deserves a drama of its own, at some point – Bloys was clear that WBD’s period of reassessment around spending and profitability had come to an end.

Clearly, with chief exec David Zaslav running the ship, the guardrails around spending on content are likely to be as narrow as can be, but Bloys said Max’s focus is now clear.

“Netflix is big and established and doing everything, but what we have realised is that we need to lean into what we do well, and that is theatrical movies, dramas, comedy, docs, the Warner Bros library, the unscripted stuff,” he said, rather than kids shows, for example.

The assumption, he went on, is that most Max subscribers will already have Amazon’s Prime Video and Netflix, a fact that clarifies thinking around his own content mix.

We have a very robust slate and that was also the point of today – to show you that it’s not a slate that looks patchy
Casey Bloys

Bloys admitted Max’s offering had been “patchy” since launch following the US writers strike – “it was obvious when writers and actors go out for six or more months it’s going to affect what you’re able to do” – but he added that 2025 would deliver.

“We have a very robust slate and that was also the point of today – to show you that it’s not a slate that looks patchy. I don’t think so.”

The scripted mix is broad – more on unscripted later – with shows ranging from debut Polish Max original espionage series The Eastern Gate to Spanish crime original When No One Sees Us (Cuando Nadie Nos Ve).

There seems also increasing empowerment at a local level, with commissioners encouraged to focus on their domestic markets.

Bloys said he had been talking with programmers this week about that very topic, asking them to pick shows “specifically for their markets and not worry about how something is going to play [elsewhere]”.

Yet while drama and comedy took centre stage, the unscripted strategy seems less concrete. Bloys said documentaries remained a key focus, while Max is also able to leverage Discovery’s content to create a rounder offering, he added.

The veteran HBO man also pointed to shows from Investigation Discovery that were “really popping”.

“Not highlighting [unscripted] wasn’t how we felt about it – we just had another job tonight, which was scripted,” he said in response to a Broadcast question.

“One of the things that’s a little bit tricky to get past is that there is a lot of linear spending with Warner Brothers Discovery, so it doesn’t necessarily count as Max spending,” he continued, “so I’m not sure where you would count it.

“But we’re making a lot and we’re spending a lot on unscripted, and it’s obviously done very well for us.”

The question of Sky

While WBD’s international intent is now becoming clearer, just how viewers in some of the biggest European markets will access Max remains a work in progress.

Sneak peeks of Mark Ruffalo’s FBI scripted event Task and IT prequel horror series Welcome To Derry were shown to assembled press, along with returning HBO tentpoles The Last of Us S2, The White Lotus S3 and Game of Throne’s inspired A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms.

It’s a noteworthy array and one that will clearly draw viewers to Sky. Yet with Max due to launch in the UK, Germany and Italy in 2026 once the Comcast-owned firm’s content deal ends, just how negotiations shake out remains to be seen.

Despite being perched on a high stool, Bloys proved nimble in his answers on the Sky conundrum: he avoided being drawn over the high-profile lawsuit surrounding the pay-TV giant’s sidelining from the Harry Potter series, but added he was optimistic that negotiations around the output deal would come to a satisfactory conclusion too.

“There is a lot of history between the companies and hopefully it all gets worked out, but it’s not something I’m involved in,” he said.

The mood in the room following the screenings was more bullish, however: execs are adamant Max will launch in those key European markets in a manner of WBD’s choosing – and if form is anything to go by, likely available on as many platforms as possible.

It’s instructive that WBD has struck numerous deals to deliver the streamer via Amazon’s Prime Video over recent months, including in the Nordics, the US, Brazil, Mexico, Colombia, France and Spain.

And while visibility on London’s streets was lacking as the assembled press decamped back into the London night, the shift in mood at WBD was palpably different to how it had been 18 months prior.

The question facing Bloys, Perrette and WBD as a whole is whether 2025 can deliver all that it has promised.