HBO Max launches in the UK this month – and I'm actually excited for a new streaming service

Any viewers of House of the Dragon will know of the battle scene in season two. No spoilers here, but I’m not exaggerating when I say it might be the finest dragon-based set piece put to screen.

Multiple dragons fell from the air. Fires raged. Soldiers burned. And all in glorious 4K HDR and Dolby Atmos.

Well, at least in the US and around 65 other countries, these were the formats available. Here in good ol' Blighty, unless you were committed to a contract for Sky hardware, we had to settle for HD on the NOW streaming service.

Now, this is hardly the biggest problem in the world, but it was a glaring and outdated omission from the NOW streaming service that'Sky operates, which at the time offered only Full HD and Dolby Digital 5.1 as its highest quality streaming options.

NOW did eventually get 4K HDR and Dolby Atmos support in August 2024 with the arrival of the Ultra Boost add-on package (just after the second House of the Dragon season wrapped up; not that I'm bitter or anything).

That’s ten years(!) after Netflix and Amazon Prime Video first offered 4K content all the way back in 2014, and seven years after Dolby Atmos made its debut on streaming via Netflix. Even fellow UK service BBC iPlayer began trialling 4K streaming all the way back in 2017.

The Ultra Boost package also costs an extra £9 a month – extortionate even among the streaming service price hikes. The Entertainment and Ultra Boost membership together would set you back £19 a month – and that doesn’t even include movies or sports.

Thanks to a long-running agreement with Warner Bros. Discovery, Sky had the exclusive rights to content from US TV behemoth HBO. HBO has a reputation for not only producing critically acclaimed shows such as The Sopranos and Succession, but also for its incredible production value. It is, of course, the network behind blockbuster TV such as Game of Thrones and The Last of Us.

These are shows which would benefit greatly from being watched in the best resolution possible. Can you think of many shows that scream 4K viewing more than the blockbuster battles of Westeros or the post-apocalyptic aftermath of the cordyceps fungus? It seems painfully ironic that some of the best-produced shows in the world, meticulously mastered in 4K, were on the one streaming service that did not support the required technical capabilities for some time.

Sky, while not quite working with the same budget as HBO, also has some of the better production values of the UK broadcasters. Indeed, several of its own shows are now available in 4K and Dolby Atmos – including several which were made before the 2024 Ultra Boost launch, which makes this even more perplexing.

All of which is why I am actually making a rare exception in welcoming the addition of a new streaming service. HBO is finally launching its own streaming service in the UK: HBO Max will be available on our shores from 26th March.

The service will host all the aforementioned shows as well as heavy hitters such as The White Lotus, Friends and The Wire. Lanterns and the Harry Potter reboot will follow, and it will have its first big exclusive premiere with medical sensation The Pitt. Oh, and 4K and Dolby Atmos will be available at launch in the UK.

We have our own problems with HBO Max, namely a confusing five-tier subscription model. But the service did at least endeavour to get 4K and Atmos support for its movies within a year of launching in the US, and had enough sense to make sure that this extended to TV series by the time House of the Dragon rolled around. HBO Max also looks to undercut NOW – the 4K/Dolby Atmos tier is available for £15 a month at launch (with movies included too, mark you).

HBO Max will undoubtedly join the streaming services in the endless price hikes eventually; but, for AV fans at least, it seems that some of the most epic shows in the world might be in a safer pair of hands.

Provided, that is, the impending Paramount acquisition of Warner Bros. doesn’t lead to another shakeup…

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