HBO Max downgrades lifetime subscription
When HBO Max was introduced in March of 2022, early adopters were offered a 50% lifetime discount as long as they stayed continuously subscribed.
Those users all got an email in February of 2025. They were offered two choices:
- keep paying the same amount, but get downgraded to SD quality
- upgrade to Premium -- via this one-time offer to keep their discount, if you do this before March 24th 2025 - and keep the HD features they got on sign-up, but this would mean they'd pay a higher monthly price.
| HBO Legacy subscription | HBO Max Standard subscriptioin | HBO Max Premium Subscription |
|---|---|---|
| 3 streams | 2 streams | 4 streams |
| 30 downloads | 30 downloads | 100 downloads |
| HD & Dolby 5.1 + UHD/4K* | HD & Dolby 5.1 | 4K UHD & Dolby Atmos* |
| HDR | SDR | HDR |
- * where available
Consumer response
Consumers were unhappy
References
https://hbo.max.com/nl/en/terms-of-use/discount-offer-terms/w2 (original lifetime discount terms) https://hbo.max.com/nl/nl/terms-of-use/premium-offer-terms/w2 (upgrade offer terms)