12-07-2022

Warner Bros. Discovery Halts Local Original Productions for HBO Max in CEE and Removes Original Content from Platform

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    The Informant by Bálint Szentgyörgyi, Áron Mátyássy and Bence Miklauzic The Informant by Bálint Szentgyörgyi, Áron Mátyássy and Bence Miklauzic © 2021 HBO Europe. All rights reserved. Photography - Orbital Strangers

    BUDAPEST: Hungarian drama series The Informant, Romanian series Hackerville and Ruxx, and Czech series The Sleepers are among the FNE partner countries’ original content removed from HBO Max. Warner Bros. Discovery also announced that it would halt all local original productions for HBO Max in several European countries, including Central and Eastern Europe.

    The decision is part of the restructuring after the WarnerMedia and Discovery merger.

    The popular Hungarian series The Informant has disappeared from the platform as we well from the Twitter and YouTube pages of Hungarian HBO Max without previous announcements, according to dailynewshungary.com.

    “I was told the day before The Informant and 49 other shows were removed, that they would no longer be featured on HBO Max. The reason given to me was a restructuring within the company that affects all of Central-Eastern Europe and Scandinavia. Losing the possibility to develop local content is a great loss for the region. I am very proud of our work together, and remain forever thankful for the opportunity given to me by HBO Max, now leading to other opportunities in the West", Bálint Szentgyörgyi, creator and director of The Informant, told FNE.

    Vera Ion, the Romanian scriptwriter of Ruxx, directed by Iulia Rugina and launched on 8 March 2022, told the Romanian daily Libertatea that she was also informed one day before the removal of the series from the platform. “The only explanation is that this is part of a new strategy”, Vera Ion told Libertatea.

    Another local series removed from HBO Max is the Czech series The Sleepers / Bez vidě directed by Ivan Zachariás. The upcoming series Víťaz directed by Jan Hřebejk, which is now in postproduction, will no longer appear on HBO Max and will probably be sold to another platform or station, according to Actualne.cz.

    The decision to remove local original content from the platform will not affect the previous decision to acquire third part content from local production.