We spoke with USC students about how the new merge will affect how much they use the platform. HBO Max seems to be the most popular of the two, while not many people know what Discovery + offers. Some perspectives of Discovery + fall ill to past conceptions and offerings such as Romina Nazari, a Health and Human Sciences major at USC.
Romina Nazari: Is Discovery+ like the nature stuff? No. Yes. I don’t know. I guess. I don’t know. So I probably don’t watch anything on there.
But some students are excited about what Discovery + can add to the mix. Computational Linguistics major Brian Winn is especially happy to hear about HGTV entering the fold.
Brian Winn: I loved HGTV as a kid. I’m not going to lie. That house renovation stuff is so satisfying. Like, yeah, actually, actually, you might have got me to use HBO Max a little bit more.
The new “Max” will have different subscription tiers. Per month, Max will cost $9.99 with ads and $15.99 without ads. Max is also set to offer a $19.99 per-month plan with called “Ultimate Ad-free” with enhanced picture and audio quality. Given that USC currently provides free subscription to its students, some question whether the re-branding will effect the cost for students. Neuroscience major Ani Karajayan wonders if USC’s transition from the Fryft to Shryft program foreshadows what may happen to the HBO Max free subscription.
Ani Karajayan: Yeah. It like, makes sense considering how, like, they change. Like the left to the left. So, like, it’s a possibility that they would, like, cut, like, not offer the subscription anymore or like, um, but I mean, it’s not that big of a worry for me because I don’t actively use HBO, Max.
This re-brand is part of a larger company wide merger between HBO-owner WarnerMedia and Discovery that birthed the multibillion-dollar media company Warner Bros. Discovery. Combining the company’s streamers into a new super-streaming service represents Max’s focus on offering a broader content portfolio to subscribers.