HBO Go to shut down, HBO Now will rebrand after HBO Max launch

By Aaron Mamiit June 12, 2020

HBO’s stable of apps is getting overhauled following the launch of the HBO Max streaming service, which had resulted in confusion between that app, HBO Go, and HBO Now.

WarnerMedia, the parent company of HBO, said that it will be shutting down HBO Go in the United States, with a plan to remove the app from primary platforms on July 31. HBO Go started 10 years ago as a way for subscribers to stream HBO shows.

“Most customers who have traditionally used HBO GO to stream HBO programming are now able to do so via HBO Max, which offers access to all of HBO together with so much more,” WarnerMedia said in a statement sent to Digital Trends.

Meanwhile, HBO Now, which was rolled out in 2015 as a streaming service for viewers without cable or satellite, will be rebranded as simply HBO.

“By doing this, we’re able to simplify things significantly for our customers and stating exactly what they get with our apps on platforms: HBO Max is an app that includes all of HBO together with an additional content offering, and the HBO app will be a stand-alone streaming platform for the HBO service,” according to WarnerMedia.

HBO Max was launched last month with several issues.

Editors' Recommendations

Topics

Contributor

Aaron received a NES and a copy of Super Mario Bros. for Christmas when he was 4 years old, and he has been fascinated with…

Entertainment

This underrated HBO show from the 2000s has been forgotten. Here’s why you should watch it now

A teenager girl and a boy talk in Big Love.

“Best of All Time” TV lists are now as common as the seasons changing, and they tend to highlight shows from relatively recent history. Old standbys such as The Sopranos, The Wire, Breaking Bad, Mad Men, and Deadwood make their almost-default appearances on these lists, with the occasional inclusion of such genre fare as Battlestar Galactica. So where does that leave Big Love, Mark V. Olsen and Will Scheffer’s polygamist family drama, which aired on HBO from 2006-2011?
Its first two seasons aired following The Sopranos, and Big Love, similarly, seems to have been overshadowed in every contemporary discussion about the best of early 21st-century TV drama, despite its being a necessary part of any TV aficionado’s understanding of that form. It differs from its contemporaries in vital, interesting ways, but its bones and blood are made of the same attention to detail and appreciation of craft that made Breaking Bad, say, shine. In the age of the rewatch, when cable TV classics are making inroads among generations who missed them when they first appeared, where’s the love for Big Love in 2024?
Big Love has all the ingredients of a TV drama classic of the noughties

Start with the seemingly upstanding family man with a dark secret: Bill Henrickson (Bill Paxton), proprietor of a Salt Lake City-based chain of home supply stores. In the pilot (aired in 2006), Bill goes about his business in his upstanding Mormon community, only to return home – surprise! – to three contiguous houses on a block in Sandy, Utah, where his three wives and seven children live as a closeted family cluster. (Mad Men recreates this dynamic beat for beat in its 2007 pilot, as Don Draper, a seemingly carefree, bed-hopping singleton about town in Manhattan, returns at the end of a day’s work to a wife and children in Ossining.)
Sandy has its requisite suspicious neighbors (like Hank on Breaking Bad or Stan on The Americans) who are certain not all is well on their block. And is there a patriarchal, devoutly focused crime family that runs its desert town almost unimpeded, à la Sons of Anarchy? Check! Harry Dean Stanton plays Roman Grant, father of Bill’s second wife (Chloe Sevigny). Roman is the leader of an extremist Mormon sect living on a compound in southern Utah, where Bill grew up -- until Roman kicked him out onto the street when Bill was 14. In 2006, Big Love was already playing with the dynamics and themes that had yet to launch its followers to TV immortality.
What makes Big Love different from other prestige shows

Entertainment

Everything coming to Max (formerly HBO Max) in February 2024

The cast of Tokyo Vice season 2.

Tokyo Vice Season 2 | Official Trailer | Max

The year may be young, but Max isn't wasting any time in delivering the best programming around. February is stacked full of returning shows and series premieres, in addition to dozens of movies new and old being added to an already impressive lineup.

Entertainment

One of the best movies of the 1990s is on HBO Max this January. Here’s why you should watch it

Two men watch a woman run in the snow in Fargo.

Over the course of their decades as one of the most well-known directing duos in the history of Hollywood, Joel and Ethan Coen have made many movies that have more than stood the test of time. Their wild and varied filmography includes dark dramas, straight comedies, and plenty of movies that don't fit neatly into either category. If you're looking to catch up on some of the directing duo's best work and you find yourself scrolling through the great list of movies available on Max, then Fargo is a perfect place to start.

The movie, which tells the story of a kidnapping gone horribly wrong and the comedic investigation into the crime, has spawned a critically acclaimed TV show by Noah Hawley that just premiered its fifth season. Ultimately, though, the original movie still reigns supreme. Here are four reasons you should check it out.
Fargo features Frances McDormand's most unforgettable performance