Johannes Larcher, Head of HBO Max International, led one of the main panels on the second day of MIPTV 2022, where he spoke about HBO Max’s international strategy, and how they are learning from its direct competition, explaining that the service does not seek to be ‘number one in market but to create a service that serves its customers with premium content’.
The executive began the talk by showing some slides about the global growth of Netflix, which he coined as an ‘achievement’ that they want to emulate but ‘slowly’. ‘Netflix is experiencing a saturation of its regional market, so its investment outside the US is very reasonable. And that is where other services are finding their home and that is why we want to do it differently and we are gradually launching with the audience and content creators in mind’.
Larcher, who said that this year they are focused on promoting the service in Europe, reported that this year WarnerMedia‘s commitment will quadruple from 10 originals in 2019, to launch 40 originals in 2023, ‘this strategy will go hand in hand with our expansion outside from the USA, since we are reaching saturation in the USA’. He also reported that the platform currently has more than 27 million subscribers worldwide, including HBO subscribers.
The executive also specified that ‘each market has its own dynamics’, and made reference to the stagnation of the performance of its pay channel in Europe, prior to the launch of HBOMax, assuring that ‘they were not growing’.
‘With the launch of HBO Max in Europe we are taking it seriously and we want to be one of the three leading services in the market’, he said. Larcher explained that they are focusing on properties like Game of Thrones and Sex And The City, as well as local originals. ‘We plan to have more series with the Max Original label in Europe’.
