HBO Max is pulling 36 titles from its streaming platform this week, the company confirmed to NPR, citing the pending merger of HBO Max and Discovery+, which are both owned by parent conglomerate Warner Bros. Discovery. It’s the platform’s latest and largest content purge in a series of recent cost-cutting moves.
“As we work toward bringing our content catalogs together under one platform, we will be making changes to the content offering available on both HBO Max and discovery+,” HBO Max said in a statement emailed to NPR. “That will include the removal of some content from both platforms.”
The content set to disappear includes HBO Max originals like the teen drama Generation and Sesame Street spinoff The Not-Too-Late Show with Elmo, as well as an unspecified selection of Sesame Street specials, and several animated shows, including Summer Island Camp.
HBO Max has quietly axed several shows and movies in recent weeks, such as Vinyl, Mrs. Fletcher, Run and Camping. But this latest announcement marks the most titles the company has taken off the platform, Variety reported. Removing titles that aren’t as popular, the publication noted, will likely save Warner Bros. Discovery money on residuals for those programs.
The content slashes are just one part of multiple changes—largely hitting HBO Max the hardest—ahead of the merger, in the wake of last year’s merger between Warner Media and Discovery.
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