Warner Bros. Discovery CFO basically admits Max rebranding is because people like HBO, not crap

Or, in Wiedenfels’ words: “The market has spoken here, and quality is the real differentiator.” To put it more plainly: The basic assumption behind the Max branding, that viewers would flock to Discovery’s big buckets of unscripted dross over the decades of quality material in HBO and other Warner Bros. brands’ libraries, does not appear to have been the case. And honestly, that language still doesn’t feel dumb enough to match the moment. How about “People like good things, and don’t like bad ones”? HBO has, through the frankly daunting work of hundreds of creators, created a brand for itself as purveyor of much of the best TV of the modern era; it is deeply depressing that one of the biggest entertainment companies on the planet had to spend this much money to figure out that people might respond to that promise of quality.

Here’s Wiedenfels’ longer statement, which he made at the MoffettNathanson Media, Internet and Communications Conference this week: “What really differentiates us, what really swings the needle when it comes to growth momentum is quality. It’s the quality content that we can produce in a way that nobody else can.” He followed this up with what certainly feels like a tacit admission that the deluge that accompanied the Max re-branding didn’t exactly play to that strength: “There was a lot of everything-for-everyone in the market. And we obviously came out of the gate with a combined portfolio, with our Discovery Networks and HBO.”