HBO Max Killing CNN Max Live Stream

If you’ve been paying attention to your HBO Max library, you may have noticed it getting smaller in recent months. Starting November 17, you’ll also lose a modified live stream of CNN called CNN Max.

CNN is launching a standalone streaming product in the next few weeks. You may remember CNN+ was a streaming service that lasted less than a month before it was shut down.

Update: Read our full review of CNN All Access.

One of the issues is that CNN Max wasn’t a true linear feed of CNN. It was cobbled together with some original shows like “5 Things with Kate Bolduan,” some CNN International content and some original news coverage. The regular CNN feed overtook the channel in cases of breaking news.

For now, HBO Max will continue to stream select CNN Originals, like “Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown,” “Stanley Tucci: Searching for Italy”, and “The Whole Story with Anderson Cooper.”

“CNN has benefitted tremendously from its two years of offering a live 24/7 feed of news to HBO Max customers,” CNN’s executive vice president of digital products and services, Alex MacCallum said. “We learned from HBO Max’s large base of subscribers what people want and enjoy the most from CNN, and with the launch of our own new streaming subscription offering coming later this fall, we look forward to building off that and growing our audience with this unique, new offering.”

The Incredible Shrinking HBO Max

Although the price hasn’t gone down, the available HBO Max content library sure has.

When Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav got control of the company in 2022, he began by slashing some original animated programs like “Infinity Train” and “Mighty Magiswords.” Fans of those shows couldn’t rent or buy or stream them anywhere else.

Zaslav tried rebranding HBO Max as “Max,” declaring that it would be “the one to watch” for everyone in the family. But that era ended this year, when the service was renamed HBO Max and there were more purges of children’s content. Parts of the user interface don’t even work because the library was cut so hastily.

HBO Max also lost access to the NBA as Prime Video and NBC/Peacock grabbed the rights.

Warner Bros. Discovery says it has plans for just 12-14 theatrical films a year, and the company has stopped creating streaming-exclusive content. Everything on HBO Max also appears on the linear HBO channel.

Considering the company plans to split next year, HBO Max could lose access to the content from its linear channels like HGTV, Magnolia Network, TLC, and Discovery. After all, the soon-to-be-CEO of Discovery Global plans to create a standalone streamer for TNT Sports. A streaming service like Netflix or Prime Video may be willing to pay more for the content from the other cable channels. When Discovery Global is its own company, it will need to find the highest bidder for its library.

Despite these seemingly endless cuts, Zaslav says they have a good case for raising the price on HBO Max. We’ll find out whether subscribers agree.