Is HBO Max coming to the UK?

Warner Bros. Discovery has officially launched MAX, a revamped streaming service that combines content from HBO Max and sibling streamer Discovery+.

The latter focused primarily on factual content while the former largely specialised in showcasing the award-winning dramas, comedy and fiction shows that made HBO such a respected name in television.

Together under the MAX banner, this new service acts as a cheaper option for viewers and became available to download in the United States in May 2023.

Read more: All the HBO Max announcements

Launching with a shiny new logo and sleek and simple name, MAX also came with a host of exciting new shows that are each due to launch on the platform in the coming months and years. From a small-screen serialised take on JK Rowling’s Harry Potter anthology to the return of Colin Farrell’s Gotham crime kingpin The Penguin, this new, amalgamated streaming service certainly looks like it’ll be top of this download list for any app-loving, pop-culture fanatic.

So far so good — but will it even be available to those of us in the UK and is HBO Max available to us in the meantime?

What shows are coming to Max?

Put simply, MAX has set the scene for a pretty stacked slate of upcoming shows and projects.

Perhaps the one that has grabbed the most attention is its planned television series reboot of JK Rowling’s Harry Potter franchise, complete with a whole new cast and an entire series dedicated to each academic year of Potter’s time at Hogwarts.

Other big announcements included a new Big Bang Theory spin-off and another Game of Thrones prequel series called A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms: The Hedge Knight. Rounding out the roster are shows like the new animated prequel series Gremlins: Secrets of the Mogwai, and The Batman spin-off The Penguin.

Can I get Max in the UK?

As it stands, Max is not currently available to viewers in the UK — despite being available in several countries in mainland Europe, such as France, Spain, Portugal and Croatia.

While there are many rumours about when the service could become available to viewers in the United Kingdom — with some outlets suggesting we might have to wait until at least 2025 — no official across-the-pond launch date has been revealed thus far.

However, much of the content featured on Max can be viewed on other streaming services that are available to UK audiences such as Sky and the NOW streaming app.

This is due to an exclusive relationship between Sky and HBO that typically means that HBO shows appear on Sky channels — usually Sky Atlantic — before they arrive anywhere else.

One possible solution could be that the platform’s content will continue to find a home on Sky. Speaking in August 2024, Sky CEO Cecile Frot-Coutaz confirmed that Max would be available to current Sky users in a similar way to Discovery+.

“There are different scenarios to how the partnership plays out,” she explained, “but there is no scenario where Max is not available to Sky customers.”

Her comments came two years after Jamie Morris, Sky’s director of programmes for the UK and Ireland explained that this relationship was expected to continue “one way or the other” into the future regardless of Discovery’s Max launch plans.

“Our relationship with HBO continues to go from strength to strength,” he said. “They’ve had a great year — the HBO slate is great and they’re creative co-production partners with us.”