Warner Bros. Discovery’s new streaming service, Max, had a great start in 2023. Overall, though, HBO saw its live channel viewership drop 34% last year.
According to a report from Variety, HBO averaged 166,000 viewers during Primetime in 2023. That is down 34% from 2022.
The decline of HBO viewership doesn’t mean that people are not watching HBO programs they are just not watching the live channel. The growth of HBO content on services like Max and even partnerships with free services like Tubi and The Roku Channel that saw older HBO programs streaming for free online gives Americans more options than ever to see HBO shows.
Most cable TV networks saw viewership drop, but HBO was one of the networks hit the hardest.
This news comes as one of HBO’s main competitors, Showtime, is being rebranded this week as Paramount+ with SHOWTIME. To promote Paramount+, Paramount will air older Paramount+ programs.
Increasingly premium content from places like HBO is being seen as something people want to watch on-demand through services like Max instead of on live channels like HBO.
As companies start pushing viewers to their on-demand services like Max and Paramount+ it raises the question about the future of live networks like HBO.
Showtime viewership was down 25% in 2023 and Starz was down 31%. Other networks like Starz Encore, and Cinemax weren’t even measured in 2023 because viewership numbers dropped too low.
Max ended the third quarter of 2023 with more than 97 million subscribers.
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