HBO Max has ceased production of most of its original content in Europe, Variety reported: the move is part of a broader initiative aiming to reduce costs following WarnerMedia’s separation from telecommunications giant AT&T. WarnerMedia simultaneously merged with Discovery, creating the Warner Bros. Discovery conglomerate). According to the source, all original productions in Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Finland, Central Europe, the Netherlands and Turkey will be discontinued, while only those in Spain and France will continue.
A spokesperson for HBO Max confirmed virtually all the details revealed by the source, adding that it will also remove the already released episodes of the cut shows from its catalog. The move will also involve Swedish sexy comedy Lust and Danish family drama Kamikaze, which are considered to be two of the platform’s most successful international shows. It appears that projects currently in the works and others pre-approved will continue to be developed, but may be sold to other platforms, so Warner will act solely as a producer.
Overall, Warner Bros. Discovery aims to cut around $ 3 billion in costs within 24 months of its inception. No layoffs have been announced at the moment but with this significant European downsizing, they seem inevitable. The source says similar steps could also be taken in other regions where HBO Max operates, including Latin America, the rest of Europe and the United States.
Ironically, in the past few months, when Netflix announced its first-ever loss of subscribers, HBO Max was earning a whopping 3 million – most (1.8 million) in the US, the rest in the rest of the world. At the end of the first quarter of 2022, the platform had a total of 76.8 million subscribers globally, approximately 12.8 million more than in the same period of the previous year.
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