HBO Max Confirms Australian Launch Date and Tie-Up with Foxtel

HBO’s Max streaming app will launch in Australia on March 31st – and be part of Foxtel’s offerings when it does.

It’s been known for some time that Warner Bros Discovery was looking to launch its HBO Max service down under in 2025 – indeed, I chatted with TV Blackbox’s Steve Molk about this last year, pondering what it would mean for the current home of HBO content, Foxtel.

Well, now we know. In a release noting that Max will launch in Australia on the 31st of March 2025, Foxtel has announced that it will be a “launch partner” for Max under what it’s calling an “evolved partnership”.

Under that partnership, Foxtel notes that Max’s expanded content offering will be available to Foxtel’s 1.4 million residential subscribers at no additional cost. Which seems reasonable given that outside of some specific US-Max-only content, the only legal way to watch HBO content in Australia has long been Foxtel anyway.

Having said that, the included tier will be the basic HBO tier, which does include advertising. If you want a no-ads HBO Max experience, that will cost extra, it seems.

The HBO Max app will also be added to the Hubbl platform, but there’s no word or indication as to whether there’s scope in the deal for Max content to also end up on Binge – though I suspect that won’t be the case given the pricing for Binge and the fact that Warner Bros Discovery does rather like money, like most businesses.

Update: Max’s own release around its imminent arrival into Australia makes this rather more rock solid clear: HBO content won’t be part of Binge once Max launches in Australia.

Right now, the only detail around Max availability in Australia is via a sign-up page if you’re coming from an Australian IP address,with a note that more detail will be available on launch.

Which means that there’s no word on pricing, though you can have something of a guess at it presuming that HBO isn’t keen on undercutting its existing US prices too much. In the US, Max has three tiers — Basic with Ads, Standard and Premium, priced at $US9.99/month ($US99.99/year), $US16.99/month ($US169.99/year) or $US20.99/month ($US209.99/year).

Rough currency conversion — ignoring GST for the moment — would put those monthly prices at around $15.75/month, $26.77/month and $33.07/month.

While Foxtel has a variety of deals on its plans — especially if you sign up for bundle or contract terms — its basic pricing starts at the time of writing at $73/month for a tier likely to include HBO Max, so that does give HBO some wriggle room on pricing — depending, as always, on whether it has the programs you want to watch on it.