HBO Max will soon make its debut in America, but up north in Canada, existing content deals will make the service a bit trickier to access. Due to various quirks of Canada's telecommunications laws, standalone streaming services can sometimes get tripped up when launching there. A big example is the WWE Network, which is still only available through cable TV providers in Canada six years after its launch, much to the chagrin of cordcutters.
WWE aside, government regulations aren't always the problem in situations like this. In the case of HBO Max, the service is so far limited to the US, at least as far as a completely standalone product. This is due to various content licensing deals HBO and Warner Media have made over the years, such as their big money deal with Sky in the UK and their streaming arm Now TV. It isn't just content that Warner owns either, as some of the service's high-profile US acquisitions are under completely different agreements in other countries.
The good news is that Canadian consumers won't be completely shut out to the programming HBO Max has to offer. The bad news is that getting to that content won't be as simple as going to HBO Max's website, creating an account, then firing up an app.
Canadians who wish to view HBO Max content will only be able to do so via subscribing to Bell Media's Crave streaming service. Crave costs $9.99 per month, then another $9.99 per month to access the HBO add-on. That's noticeably $5 higher than the $14.99 price tag HBO Max carries in the US. To be fair though, with the current exchange rate, the two prices are about the same when both are in US dollars. However, there's another issue Canadian consumers should be aware of.
The content selection available on Crave won't be quite as extensive as on HBO Max itself, thanks to those aforementioned licensing deals. Crave will for sure carry the HBO library, as well as original programming produced for HBO Max by HBO Max, although possibly not originals produced by outside companies. Catalog titles from Warner Bros. and other HBO Max partners won't necessarily be available, depending on existing agreements they might be under. For example, Friends may have left Netflix for HBO Max in the US, but in Canada, Netflix is still in the middle of a multi-year deal for the sitcom. Hopefully HBO Max will one day come to Canada properly, but those interested are advised not to hold their breath. Deals like the one Warner Media has with Crave are big sources of revenue that might not be made up for simply with Canadian subscriptions to HBO Max.
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