What's the difference between HBO and HBO Max?

Best answer: Both have the traditional HBO, but HBO Max has so much more. And they're the same price.

The service: HBO Max ($14.99 a month)

It's not just HBO — it's so much more

HBO Max launches on May 27, 2020. But that doesn't mean the legacy HBO you know and love is going away anytime soon. Never mind the confusion that both services living in parallel will cause, at least as far as the names go. The difference is simple.

HBO is HBO. All the movies and series and originals that you've come to know and love over the decades.

And HBO Max is more. A lot more, actually.

It all comes down to the fact that HBO is now a part of WarnerMedia, which owns a bunch of other media properties. And that means that HBO Max is able to be a new digital home for a lot of those properties. You might not know which entity actually owns the show you're watching, but that's never really mattered, right?

Here are some of the other properties that'll have content on HBO Max:

Warner Bros.
New Line
DC
CNN
TNT
TBS
truTV
Cartoon Network
Adult Swim
Crunchyroll
Rooster Teeth
Looney Tunes
A selection of classic films from TCM

And then there's the all-popular "and more," meaning that list is just for starters. And that's not even including the slate of new originals that'll be coming to HBO Max, including these six on Day 1 .

Basically, there's absolutely no reason not to switch to HBO Max if you're already an HBO subscriber. (And, in fact, you'll basically be moved over to the new service — and a whole bunch of folks who already have some sort of service with AT&T will have access to HBO Max for free.)

So while the two will live on simultaneously for a bit, chances are we'll see some consolidation in a year or so.

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It's not HBO — it's HBO Max

Here's the easy way to think about it: HBO is HBO. And HBO Max is all that legacy stuff — plus a whole lot content from other sources.