HBO MAX is coming to 15 additional European countries on March 8, six more later in 2022

HBO Max has been scheduled to launch in fifteen new European countries next month in its second wave of European launches. The WarnerMedia-owned service has also confirmed it’ll be coming to an additional six countries in Europe “later in 2022.”

A white HBO Max logo set against a purple gradient background
Image credit: WarnerMedia
  • HBO Max is coming to 15 additional countries in Europe including the Netherlands, Poland, Romania, Czech Republic and Portugal
  • Later in 2022, HBO Max will expand to an additional six European countries including Greece and Turkey
  • Germany and the UK are not, however, getting HBO Max for the time being

HBO MAX launching in 15 new countries in Europe on March 8

HBO Max made its European debut on October 26, 2021, arriving in Andora, Denmark, Finland, Norway, Spain and Sweden. The service will arrive in the following countries in Europe on Tuesday, March 8, 2022, coinciding with International Women’s Day.

  • Bosnia and Herzegovina
  • Bulgaria
  • Croatia
  • Czech Republic
  • Hungary
  • Moldova
  • Montenegro
  • Netherlands
  • North Macedonia
  • Poland
  • Portugal
  • Romania
  • Serbia
  • Slovakia
  • Slovenia

HBO has yet to reveal local prices for each of the aforementioned countries.

Currently available in 46 territories across the Americas and Europe, the upcoming launches will bring the number of countries where HBO Max is live to 61 with these launches. WarnerMedia has also confirmed that HBO Max will expand to an additional six countries in Europe later in 2022, including Greece and Turkey.

Reuters notes that WarnerMedia plans to have HBO MAx available in 190 markets by 2026. HBO Max features include personalization with up to five viewer profiles, three simultaneous streams, no limit on registered devices per subscription, 5.1 surround sound, Dolby Atmos and select titles available in 4K.

Wait, what about the UK?

So why is the United Kingdom, a major market, conspicuously absent from HBO Max’s upcoming expansion wave in Europe? Christina Sulebakk, HBO Max’s general manager for the EMEA region, explained why that’s the case.

Sitting down with Variety back in 2021, she said that HBO’s parent company WarnerMedia has distribution deals in place with Sky Atlantic and Now TV in the United Kingdom. Those contracts stipulate that HBO Max cannot launch its streaming service in the United Kingdom before the contracts expire. The same is true for Germany, where HBO Max is currently unavailable. Read: How to lock your Netflix profile with a PIN code

For further information about the service, visit the official HBO Max website.

Let the Streaming Wars begin

HBO Max is facing intense competition in every country where the service is available. Rival Disney+, for example, will bring its video-streaming service to 44 additional markets and eleven new territories across Europe, Africa and West Asia by this summer. Disney+ has about 118 million subscribers.

Meanwhile, Netflix, which has 118 million subscribers but in 2021 experienced its lowest year of subscriber growth since 2015, has jacked up prices for all its plans in the US.