WarnerMedia earlier this week has revealed its plan to launch HBO Max in Southeast Asia including Malaysia. This was confirmed as the company announced the appointment of Amit Malhotra as the Managing Director of the service in this region as well as India.
Amit who was previously the Regional Lead for Disney+ in SEA will be overseeing the rollout of HBO Max in this region and will be reporting directly to the Head of HBO Max International, Johannes Larcher. He will also assume the management of HBO’s existing streaming service for this region, HBO GO once he officially joins WarnerMedia later this month.
Despite that, the announcement also stated that David Simonsen who was previously looking after HBO GO in Southeast Asia will continue to work together with Amit. However, no specific launch date for HBO Max in Malaysia was mentioned in the announcement although it did say that the service is expected to be available in 61 markets by the end of 2021.
It is going to be interesting to see how this new development will affect the existing deal between Astro and WarnerMedia concerning HBO GO. However, given that the new guy was also responsible for the rollout of Disney+ Hotstar into Malaysia, it is possible that things would not change much in that manner.
Nevertheless, WarnerMedia has hinted in the announcement that the arrival of HBO Max in Southeast Asia will bring together expanded content offerings alongside a new “premium platform” that will deliver a better streaming experience than HBO GO. Expect to hear more from the company in the upcoming months, so stay tuned.
(Source: WarnerMedia.)
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