HBO Max enters streaming wars at $15 a month

WarnerMedia unveiled its long-awaited HBO Max, which will cost $15 a month when it premieres in May, making it the most expensive gladiator in the streaming wars.

The stakes are high for WarnerMedia, whose service will compete in a crowded market. For nearly two decades, HBO has provided the gold standard in television with such shows as “Succession,” “Game of Thrones,” “The Sopranos” and “Veep.” But the world is changing as tech companies lure eyeballs and talent away from traditional TV channels.

Two years in the making, HBO Max is being designed to go head-to head with Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, Hulu, Apple TV Plus, which arrives Friday, and Disney Plus, which becomes available Nov. 12. The new service will be available to AT&T customers who already have HBO at no additional cost.

Because it will cost substantially more than Disney ($7) Apple ($5) and Netflix ($13), WarnerMedia executives must convince people that HBO Max is worth the additional cost.

To that end, they said the service will debut with a plethora of new and old content — totaling 10,000 hours — in hopes of drawing tens of millions of subscribers.

“We are committed to building a scaled and profitable platform that provides a solid foundation for future growth,” said WarnerMedia CEO John Stankey during a presentation at the Warner Bros. lot in Burbank.

HBO Max will have 31 original programs in 2020, for every audience demographic, including kids and family, Millennials and women.

“This is an area of emphasis for us because it is an under-served audience,” Sarah Aubrey, head of original content, said of the focus on women.

Programming will be drawn from HBO, documentaries from CNN, new DC superhero content and revamps of Looney Tunes and Hanna-Barbera cartoons, along...