Mary McNamara: HBO is the jewel in Warner Bros. Discovery's crown. And apparently they hate it
LOS ANGELES — The network that put the prestige into prestige television has just been devoured by the artistic revolution it helped spark.
Where once its logo ran "It's not television, it's HBO," it could now read, for streaming purposes anyway, "It's not HBO, it's just plain Max."
On Wednesday, Warner Bros. Discovery, recently criticized for "hollowing out an iconic American studio," announced that it is continuing its scorched-earth tactics by adding Discovery+ programming to HBO Max and renaming the streamer "Max." ("Joshua" having been, presumably, copyrighted by the creators of "WarGames.")
Never has streaming's desire for quantity over quality been more vividly illustrated than Warner Bros. Discovery's decision to value "Max" over "HBO."
To add insult to injury, Discovery+ will remain its
