They are having fun with it

Cell service or home internet service?

Even Carrot is getting in on it …

^ Love Carrot! I got that when I checked the forecast when I got up.

Mine is though cell service

At least WB is getting ahead of the memes before the general public. Smart move in that regard. I'm glad "HBO" is back in the branding...they know how their bread is buttered. First it was the color change a few weeks ago, may as well go full circle.

They should celebrate by giving me an amazing deal!

...Anyone know of an amazing deal?

...One that doesn't require me to switch to Verizon or mess up my grandfathered Hulu/Disney+ package or sell a few of my kidneys?

Creating a problem that wasn't there by making major, unnecessary changes, then failing, and then reverting back and claiming success seems to be a thing going around these days.

Lost in all of this nonsense, seemingly, is that they are removing stuff left and right from "HBO Max": First all the discovery shows, which I personally don't care that much about, but man they're purging a ton of Boomerang and CN/Adult Swim content as well.

Bye bye Aqua Teen Hunger Force, Power Puff Girls, Samurai Jack, etc.

It's almost time to rename it to HBO Go...

Technically, it's more like HBO Now, since you don't need a cable TV subscription to use it.

This just means there will be another price hike when they rebrand it again.

Best I can do is say to sign up for an annual plan. You can get $15 referral cash back by using a link on Hoopla: https://hoopladoopla.com/brand/hbo-max
And if you have an American Express card, check it for an offer if you pay with AMEX. I currently have a spend $99 or more, earn $25 on mine.

Otherwise, if you know someone with a Spectrum TV Select subscription, you could maybe "borrow" their Spectrum login to get Max (with ads) for free:
https://www.spectrum.net/support/tv/getting-started-max
You can even upgrade it to the ad-free version for an additional $7/month.

You could also wait for sales which usually happen in the fall and/or Black Friday, but those are usually for the ad tier, and I don't think there's any way to upgrade those promo prices to the ad-free tier.

When they changed from HBO Max to Max, I had to download the new Max app on my iPhone. I had them both for a while. I think the HBO Max app became non-functional and just told you to download the Max app. I eventually deleted the HBO Max app. Hopefully, it will be just an in place update this time like when the Twitter app became X.

Hmm. Looks as if I would need to change our plan. Still getting Disney/Hulu free, so …

I wonder if we could change the plan on just one line …

WB managed to New Coke the HBO brand, I'm kind of impressed.

Thats what I did, My Dad and I are on the same account. My number has an old plan with the grandfathered Disney bundle. So I did the Max/netflix perk on his line.

The Disney Bundle on my Verizon plan was linked to a number that when I upgraded had to be updated to a plan that didn't include it. The rep at Verizon was able to move the bundle to my plan as it also originally qualified for the non-expiring bundle.

S&P Downgrades Warner Bros. Discovery To Junk Status On “Weak Credit Metrics” That Would Get Worse If Company Splits

https://deadline.com/2025/05/sp-down...6355/#comments

Yeah WBD has a long way to go to be back on track. They really bungled Max or HBO Max and despite having 3 hits in a row theatrically, they have more bombs than hits.

And what other Streaming Network has had a recent hit even anywhere close to as big as The Last of Us or The White Lotus? Hell, I don't think anything currently on Paramount, Netflix, HULU, Apple TV+, or Peacock is even having the cultural impact of The Rehearsal right now.

Wednesday on Netflix I would argue, but probably not much else.

Neither a recent hit, nor currently on. But it will be big when it does return.
And I totally forgot about Andor (and forgot to mention Disey+), which is at least a huge critical hit. But for the most part the other streamers are lagging far behind Max for hot new content with wide critical and commercial appeal.

Well this is probably to the point of the rename, but aren't all the shows you listed actually HBO shows not technically "Max" shows?

Yes, streaming on the Max streaming service.