HBO Max was an American subscription video on-demand streaming service from Warner Bros. Discovery Direct, a division of Warner Bros. Discovery. The service launched on May 27, 2020. The service was rebranded as "Max" on May 23, 2023, as part of a broader rebranding by Warner-Discovery, however it is still called HBO Max outside of the United States.
History[]
On launch, HBO Max contained the first two seasons of Infinity Train that aired on Cartoon Network while the third and fourth seasons premiered on August 13, 2020 and April 15, 2021 as HBO Max exclusives. Infinity Train was planned as an HBO Max exclusive from the beginning, but when the Warner and AT&T lawsuit delayed the streaming service's launch, the first two seasons were aired on Cartoon Network instead.
Following the Warner Bros.-Discovery merger, on August 17, 2022 an outside source confirmed that the streaming service will remove several of its most popular cartoons to "avoid paying residuals" to their creators.[1] This includes all four seasons of Infinity Train (including the two that were released exclusive to the service), which were removed on August 18 without notice. Owen Dennis revealed in his newsletter that the initial plans were to delay the removal to the following week to notify creators and artists, but executives at Warner-Discovery went ahead.[2]