Prices, HBO series, Olympic Games… Everything you need to know about Max, the new streaming platform arriving in France

The American giant Warner is launching its Max streaming platform this Tuesday in France. A platform that is based on three pillars: series, notably HBO creations, films from the century-old studio, and sport through Eurosport.

One more platform. If you weren’t completely satisfied with the offers from Netflix, Prime Video, Disney+, Apple TV+ and even Paramount+ (not counting the French platforms: Mycanal, France.tv, TF1+, M6+ and Arte.tv), you now still have more choice: the Max streaming platform is launched this Tuesday, June 11 in France after long months of waiting.

France is in fact one of the last countries where Max is available. Warner Bros. Discovery, the parent company, first deployed its platform in the United States and then gradually in Eastern Europe. Confident of its strengths, the American media and entertainment giant arrives with great ambition.

“Our target is very clear: we want to be in the top 3 streaming platforms in each of the countries we arrive in, including France,” indicated Clément Schwebig, president of Warner Bros. Discovery Western Europe and Africa, Digital.

“That’s our policy, our objective, and we are not getting into this to be last in the pack. We are still putting very substantial resources into it, with of course an objective of profitability,” assures Clément Schwebig. But what is this new platform really worth?

On the series side, HBO classics and “Originals”

For France, Max puts forward the figure of 18,500 hours of programs available from launch. A figure lower than that of the main platforms, which are more around 30,000 to 40,000 hours, but the catalog is intended to expand over time.

The offer is mainly driven by Max’s fairly massive catalog of series. Notably thanks to the productions of HBO, the American cable channel, cradle of some of the best series of the 21st century, being in the fold of Warner. We therefore find behemoths like Game Of Thrones (and its prequel House of the Dragonwhose season 2 starts on June 16), The Last of Us, Succession, The White Lotus, Euphoria, True Detective, The Sopranos, Bugged…

To this, we must add the “Max Originals” creations, leading figures of the new platform. At launch, we can see And just like that (Following Sex and the city), the superhero series Peacemaker with John Cena or even Our flag means deathcomedy series in the world of piracy.

But the main “call series” will be launched gradually in the coming months with The Penguinseries derived from the film The Batman, Dune: Prophecyderived from the diptych Dune by Denis Villeneuve, Welcome to Derryexpansion of horror films Thatbut especially the series Harry Potter which must revive the adventures of the wizard with glasses on the small screen.

In addition to these original and exclusive creations for Max, the platform has brought together several popular series, starting with Friends, which will be repatriated from Netflix on July 1st. Other notable titles include The Big Bang Theory, Young Sheldon, The Mentalist, Gossip Girl, Arrow, Person of Interest, The prince of Bel-Air, Smallville, Gotham…

Finally, the offer is completed by an animation branch, both aimed at adults (Rick & Morty, Samurai Jack, My Hero Academia…) and children thanks to the Boomerang, Cartoon Network and Cartoonito channels.

Five French series in production

Max may well be an American platform, but by setting up in France, it is forced to respect legal obligations regarding the production of local content. Warner therefore launched the production of four series with more or less distant releases.

The first to be released, in fall 2024, will be A devoted friendmini-series in four episodes inspired by the “Bataclan mythologist” with Laure Calamy in the main role and directed by Just Philippot (The cloud, Acid).

Will follow, in 2025, Malditosseries centered on a gypsy community threatened by rising waters and forced to fight for its survival, and a “free adaptation” of the book Living with our deadby Delphine Horvilleur, with Elsa Guedj, Éric Elmosnino, Manu Payet, Noémie Lvovsky, Anouk Grinberg…

Subscribers will also be entitled to an immersion documentary series in a youth team of a French football club, entitled Now or never: FC Montfermeil.

Finally, Max announced the development of Merteuila new adaptation of Dangerous Liaisons, told this time from the point of view of Isabelle de Merteuil. Humiliated by Valmont, the young woman begins an unlimited rise to the court of Louis XV. In the cast, we will find Anamaria Vartolomei, Diane Kruger and Vincent Lacoste.

Max has also made agreements with French channels to broadcast some of their content. At launch, the platform offers the series Sambre (France Télévisions) and Polar Park (Arte).

On the film side, Warner’s impressive catalog

Armed arm of Warner in streaming, Max logically benefits from the catalog of films of the historic studio, which celebrated its 100th anniversary last year. From the launch, a certain number of classics of the 7th art are available: 2001: A Space Odyssey, Merciless, Blade Runner, The Bodyguard, Casablanca, A Clockwork Orange, Matrix… But also more recent successes like Interstellar And Inception by Christopher Nolan, Gravity, Mad Max: Fury Road, Gran Torino, A star is born…

For newer films, Max is limited by French media chronology legislation. So, we will have to wait a little before seeing some recent hits from Warner arrive on the platform like barbie And Dune.

Warner also has several well-established franchises in its catalog, including the entire saga Harry Potter and its spin-off Fantastic Beasts. Superhero fans will also be able to find films from the DC Comics shared universe: the Batmans of all eras, Aquaman, Wonder Woman, Joker…

Finally, Warner acquired a few French films to expand its offering for French audiences: Babysitting 1 and 2, The Heartbreaker, Gainsbourg, heroic life…

A “Sport option” with the entire Olympic Games

It’s the little extra that can make all the difference for Max. Indeed, the giant Warner, when it bought the Discovery network, got its hands on the channels of the Eurosport group, one of the main sports broadcasters in France. These channels will therefore be accessible through a supplement, a “Sport option” at 5 euros/month.

On Eurosport channels, subscribers will be able to watch tennis (Grand Slam and Masters 1000 tournaments), cycling with the three grand tours and all the “classics”, biathlon, alpine skiing, etc.

But where sport can make a real difference in favor of Max is that the platform, via Eurosport, is the paying broadcaster of Olympic Games. And therefore the only place where it will be possible to view all of the events. The platform thus promises up to 62 simultaneous streams so as not to miss anything of the event and 3,800 hours of live broadcast with experienced consultants, such as Alain Bernard and Christine Arron.

Where to see Max and at what price?

To benefit from all this content, you obviously have to pay. For the launch, Max chose to align with the classic offers of American streaming platforms with three subscriptions, one of which with advertising. Here are the details of the three subscription offers:

• “Basic” at 5.99 euros/month: HD quality, two simultaneous screens and above all with advertising;
• “Standard” at 9.99 euros/month: HD quality, two simultaneous screens, no advertising, 30 downloads and access to linear channels;
• “Premium” at 13.99 euros/month: 4K HDR quality with Dolby Atmos sound (subject to compatible equipment), four simultaneous screens and access to linear channels.

The last two offers provide access to viewing Max’s linear channels, including TCM Cinéma, Adult Swim, CNN, Cartoon Network and Discovery.

Regarding the broadcast channels, Max is accessible on mobile from the application, on connected TVs and Playstation and Xbox consoles and via SFR, Free and Orange boxes.

The platform has also entered into two broadcast partnerships. First with Canal+, where Max is included “at no extra cost”, in the “Canal+ Ciné Séries, Rat+ Ciné Séries, Friends & Family, Friends & Family” offers, but also in the Ciné Séries Channels pack ( with more Ciné Séries Channels), the Ciné Séries pack (with more Ciné Séries), Intégrale and Intégrale+”.

Then in Prime Video. The Amazon platform has until now offered a “Warner Pass” bringing together most HBO content. Subscribers to this pass can switch, for the same price of 9.99 euros/month, to the Max “Standard” subscription with the bonus of free Eurosport channels for six months. If you are a Prime Video subscriber but did not have the Warner Pass, it is also possible to subscribe to Max without changing platforms.