Speaking at Series Mania, Priya Dogra and Christina Sulebakk outlined HBO Max\u2019s European rollout plans, with the platform due to arrive in the Nordic region and Spain this fall, followed by Central and Eastern Europe and Portugal in 2022.<\/p>\n
Sulebakk, general manager for HBO Max in EMEA, said the initial rollout covers the existing HBO Europe footprint, encompassing some 20 territories. \u201cThe plan is to go global, but we will do that in a staggered approach. We\u2019re looking into new markets when appropriate, when we think we have a good offer to bring consumers in the market.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dogra, president of EMEA and Asia (excluding China) at WarnerMedia, noted that the company is feeling confident following its U.S. and LatAm launches. \u201cEurope is a complicated market but an exciting one. To take the existing services that Christina and her team have launched over the last decade and to bring them into the Max world\u2014the content, the technology\u2014it\u2019s such an exciting time for us.\u201d<\/p>\n
In addition to the entire WarnerMedia slate\u2014HBO, Max originals, DC, Warner Bros. and Cartoon Network\u2014HBO Max in Europe will also feature third-party acquisitions \u201cboth from big studios but also from independents,\u201d Sulebakk said. \u201cWe want to make sure we have a rounded profile when we launch HBO Max.\u201d<\/p>\n
European originals will be key to the rollout, including the Danish Kamikaze<\/em>. Asked about the new 30 percent European content quota on streamers, Dogra noted, \u201cWe\u2019re committed to connecting with audiences. Consumers want to see their values, their communities, reflected on the screen. The way you do that is by telling local stories, you work with local creatives. We\u2019re committed and we have been for decades in Europe. We\u2019re committed to being not just a global service\u2014we\u2019re going to bring the best of the U.S. to Europe but also supplement that with as much local language and local storytelling as we can.\u201d<\/p>\n Sulebakk added, \u201cIt\u2019s not about quotas, it\u2019s about local flavor. It\u2019s really important for us to be locally curated. We have teams in every location where we\u2019ll operate. We want to have local people in every office to curate and optimize and market and communicate the product because we believe in that local flavor.\u201d<\/p>\n Discussing the content remit further, Dogra noted, \u201cThe existing HBO services have been a little more limited in their reach. With HBO Max, what we\u2019re really trying to do is, it\u2019s something for everyone. We\u2019re trying to appeal to a very broad audience with the highest quality programming. HBO Max will be built on a core of our U.S. slate, and then to complement all of that, we will find local stories.\u201d The slate in the works under the chief of original programming for WarnerMedia, Antony Root, crosses multiple genres, from light reality to hard-hitting docs, crime thrillers to comedies. \u201cWe want to work with the top talent, but we also want to work with the next generation of talent and give new storytellers and new actors voices. Our doors are open, and the stories we\u2019re seeing come through the door really excite us. These stories will travel to Latin America, to the U.S., to Asia. That\u2019s the exciting part of having a global service.\u201d<\/p>\n Sulebakk mentioned key third-party buys like The Handmaid\u2019s Tale<\/em> and Vikings<\/em>, which help to make the service unique. \u201cWe continue to acquire. The teams are committed to that. And to invest in the productions Antony Root\u2019s team is developing across EMEA. One of our commitments is looking at the clusters of content and making sure we have something to cater to all audiences and retaining them and keeping them watching more and inspiring them to broaden their horizons.\u201d<\/p>\n The panelists were asked about streaming platforms and theatrical windows in the wake of Scarlett Johansson\u2019s suit against Disney over the simultaneous release of Black Widow<\/em> on Disney+. \u201cThese are not new issues,\u201d Dogra said. \u201cThey are important issues, but the industry has gone through these\u2014the pay-TV window was created, the home-entertainment window was created. We go through these cycles of trying to figure out what\u2019s a fair way to establish the economics for the stakeholders. As a company, we are committed to all the stakeholders\u2014our theatrical exhibition partners, filmmakers and talent, and consumers to give them access to those stories. Balancing those stakeholders is what we do. As these windows are evolving, we did something in the U.S. that was very specific for the pandemic year, and we put out movies day and date on Max and in theaters. We were trying to have a steady supply of movies in an economically feasible way. Going forward, the way these things become compatible is, we will work with our partners as we have been doing and find a way for the windows to work. Windows will evolve in a way that makes sense, and they are already evolving in the U.S. We are working with partners, with filmmakers, to make sure that the economics across the board are fair. I don\u2019t believe they are incompatible. It\u2019s more that, given the backdrop of a pandemic, it has been harder to have the kinds of discussions that we need to have. Over the next year, you\u2019ll start to see some of that settle. It\u2019s a question of finding a framework in which we can satisfy all the economic interests.\u201d<\/p>\n Going forward, \u201cwe intend to have exclusive theatrical windows,\u201d Dogra added. \u201cI wouldn\u2019t call it a hybrid strategy, I would call it an evolution of an existing windowing strategy that is in keeping with how consumers watch and how the industry is evolving.\u201d<\/p>\n HBO and HBO Max had some 47 million U.S. subscribers as of July 2021, with more than 67 million overall globally. Revealing its Q2 financials, WarnerMedia said it expects to hit between 70 million and 73 million global subs for HBO and HBO Max by year-end.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Speaking at Series Mania, Priya Dogra and Christina Sulebakk outlined HBO Max\u2019s European rollout plans, with the platform due to arrive in the Nordic region and Spain this fall, followed by Central and Eastern Europe and Portugal in 2022.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":290,"featured_media":11253,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[69],"tags":[2749,2208,2750,2209],"class_list":["post-11252","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","","category-top-stories","tag-christina-sulebakk","tag-hbo-max","tag-priya-dogra","tag-warnermedia"],"yoast_head":"\n