It's Not TV, It's Whatever It's Called These Days

Last week, the television streaming channel formerly known as HBO Max, formerly known as HBO Go, formerly known as HBO Now, formerly known as just HBO changed it’s name to Max. It reminds me a bit of my first published novel which started out as The Balderdash Semesters (my idea) became The Subrosa Semesters (my publisher’s idea) and then after the buyer for the then national bookstore chain Borders said the title didn’t work for them, became Popular (my idea with help from friends and family after a frantic weekend of brainstorming.)

Unlike my novel’s name change a lot of marketing effort and money went into the decision to rebrand as Max. As someone who had changed the name of this newsletter a minimum of three times (possibly more, I’ve lost count) I realize I’m treading in hypocritical waters here, but I will say this latest name change for the television channel/streaming service leaves me a bit baffled.

For those who aren’t old enough to remember, HBO stands for Home Box Office, and originally the premium cable channel was a way to watch new-to-video movies in the comfort of your own home – no extra trip to the video store necessary. At the time, if you wanted to watch theatrical movies in their entirety your choices were to watch them in the movie theater, wait for them to come out on video (it was a much longer wait than today’s movies which seem to be in theaters one month and then streaming the next month), pay to rent the tape from a video store or pay for an HBO subscription and hope that the movies you wanted to see were shown on HBO.

Home Box Office, which my grandmother called Home Box for short, but which most people called HBO was a clunky, but apt name for a pay-to-watch television station that offered you the opportunity to watch a rotating slate of movies for a flat monthly fee (not unlike today’s various streaming subscriptions) without having to buy a ticket at the movie theater box office each time you wanted to see a flick. In that way, the cost of an HBO subscription was seen as a good value.

Even back in the pre-streaming era, HBO had some competition in the premium cable channel arena. Cinemax and Showtime were the two biggest competitors who offered a similar service to HBO. Both still exist today, which is part of the reason I am a bit baffled by HBO’s two most recent rebranding efforts. When they became HBO Max a few years back, I wasn’t the only one who initially thought they had merged with Cinemax. They didn’t. So, the decision to just be known as “Max” is an interesting choice since it seems like it would be a better name for Cinemax than for the streaming service formerly known as HBO, but what do I know?

These days I feel like Max, as they insist on being called this week, is more known for their original content than their slate of theatrical movies, which seem more like an afterthought. That said, just like with their name change their marketing choices when it comes to their original content leaves me scratching my head.

I first learned about their original show Minx when they announced they were pulling it from their lineup and and fans voiced their dismany. I decided to see what all the fuss was about. It was an excellent show, at least what I saw of it was excellent. Not being a binge-watcher, I managed to catch three episodes before it disappeared from HBO Max less than a year after its debut. Besides the fact that it was scrubbed from the service so quickly, what baffles me is that I never once saw a single advertisement for the show.

In this day and age of targeted advertising (Recently I did a search for outdoor lounge chairs, and and I’m now going to be seeing patio furniture ads for the next six months, at least.) it seems bizarre to me that streaming services (Max is not alone in this) are doing such a terrible job of marketing content for viewers. Why didn’t I see a single ad for Minx, but saw countless ones for that Game of Thrones dragon show spinoff when based on my streaming habits it is highly unlikely I would have any interest in the dragon show? And I mean no disrespect to anyone who likes fantasy shows and related media, it just isn’t my cup of team, and my streaming habits reflect that.

On a related note while watching Hulu shows in English with no subtitles in a household that never streams content in Spanish we regularly see Spanish-language commercials. While I appreciate the chance to brush up on my high school Spanish, it seems pretty clear that someone at Hulu is doing a crappy job, and advertisers are getting ripped off.

Anyway, seeing large companies with huge marketing budges make some strange choices makes me feel not so bad that it took me three tries to get the title of my first book right. Naming things is tricky.

— Alissa