Kids weren’t watching HBO Max? Well, let’s get Scooby-Doo on the case

Welcome to the Wide Shot, a newsletter about the business of entertainment. Sign up here to get it in your inbox.

When you think HBO, you don’t think of kids. Except perhaps for the homicidal, despotic ones, like King Joffrey.

That explains at least part of Warner Bros. Discovery’s reasoning for removing the “HBO” from HBO Max in the branding of its new superservice, coming May 23.

Warner Bros. Discovery wants to use its legacy of child-friendly entertainment to expand the audience for Max beyond HBO’s affluent, coastal, prestige TV-loving, grown-up audience. And it wants to do so without turning the service into, as Max and HBO content chief Casey Bloys put it at last week’s press event, “a giant undifferentiated blob of programming.”

It’s not as if Warner Bros. Discovery lacks movies and shows for youngsters, with its library of “Sesame Street,” Hanna-Barbera and “Looney Tunes” episodes, along with such brands as Cartoon Network and Boomerang.

The problem is that few people are going to HBO Max for Bugs Bunny and “Adventure Time.”

After Discovery executives took over the WarnerMedia assets, including HBO Max, from AT&T, they saw that kiddo content on the platform was punching way below its weight, considering the amount of well-known titles available.

The HBO brand — known for prestigious, grown-up, violent, sexy fare — was a deterrent to parents, they said.

Children’s programming isn’t totally alien to HBO, which has carried “Sesame Street” for years. In fact, HBO was the home of Jim Henson’s ‘80’s puppet comedy show “Fraggle Rock,” revived for the streaming wars by early-HBO-aping Apple TV+. Still, it’s never been the pay-TV network’s forte.

So what do you do? To borrow a lesson from the Stringer Bell School of Business and Management, you change up the name.

“If your storefront says in bright big lights, ‘best content in the world for adults,’ it’s just not a welcome mat for kids,” said JB Perrette, Warner Bros. Discovery’s chief executive and president of global streaming and games, in an interview.

Making TV for kids is a competitive racket.

Disney+ is the undisputed ruler of children’s entertainment in streaming, with its princesses and Pixar movies. Peacock has DreamWorks Animation movies and Minions, galore. Paramount+ showcases “SpongeBob SquarePants” and other Nickelodeon shows. Netflix is basically “The Cocomelon Channel” in some households (though not mine yet, I’m grateful to report).

Renaming HBO Max is a start as the company tries to get what it sees as its rightful share of youngsters’ attention.

But the branding dissonance — conjuring the image of “Succession’s” Logan Roy telling Cookie Monster to “f— off” — was not the only impediment to HBO Max becoming a destination for families with small kids.

To make matters worse, HBO Max’s home screen didn’t do much at all to emphasize the child-friendly content on the app.

Sure, users could create a password-protected kids’ profile with parental controls that would take users to the shows meant for young-ins (call it HBO Jr.). But on the main user interface, the kids’ material was buried in subsections and tabs that required a combination of clicks and much scrolling before seeing a scrap of “Scooby-Doo.”

The new Max app promises to display family-focused programming much more proudly in its layout so that kids and parents can find their next show to watch without going to the search bar.

“We wanted to make it much more pronounced — much more explicit and overt — that there’s great kids content here,” Perrette said.

However, don’t expect a sudden influx of news shows for kids coming to Max.

Warner Bros. Discovery’s content purge last year included the cancellation of multiple children’s series, including “The Not-Too-Late Show With Elmo” and “Summer Camp Island,” as the company looked to streamline its offering and save money. Many classic “Sesame Street” episodes were removed from the service as well.

For the short term, Max’s strategy is to boost its family viewership with its existing lineup and library, before using viewership data to decide whether to invest more in shows for younger viewers, be they preschoolers, 6- to 10-year-olds or tweens.

That approach is meant to correct for the company’s previous structure under which, as Perrette describes it, the teams in charge of kids programming were “completely disconnected” from the streaming service.

“Neither Casey nor anybody on that team on HBO Max had any insights into what was being produced,” Perrette said. “And so that is, like, criminal, frankly.”

That’s not to say that there won’t eventually be significantly more kids content produced for Max. “But if we’re going to do even more, let’s first be guided by what we see once the product launches,” Perrette said.

Stuff we wrote

— Fox News and Dominion head to trial in a potentially historic $1.6-billion defamation case. The 12-person jury in Delaware will have to decide whether Fox News acted with malice by presenting the claims while knowing the information was false or displaying a reckless disregard for the truth. The start of the trial was delayed to Tuesday from Monday, leaving the chance that the two sides would come up with a settlement.

— The actor, the hairstylist and the eye surgeon: Drugs and death in a Malibu beach house. The death of troubled eye surgeon Mark Sawusch in his Malibu oceanfront house exposes how a Fresno hairstylist and Hollywood actor took over his home, dropped acid with him and drained his fortune.

— A prison at Disney World? DeSantis says he’ll reassert control over special Florida district. In the latest volley in the ongoing feud between Ron DeSantis and Walt Disney Co., the Florida governor suggested Monday that the state could reassert control over land around Disney World.

— A Disney meeting didn’t change this lawmaker’s mind on Chinese censorship. Rep. Mike Gallagher, chairman of the House Select Committee on China, met with Hollywood executives, including Walt Disney Co. CEO Bob Iger, and Silicon Valley leaders such as Apple CEO Tim Cook, to discuss their companies’ business ties with the CCP.

— Snehal Desai becomes first person of color to lead Center Theatre Group. In a watershed moment for L.A. arts, Center Theatre Group has named Desai as its artistic director, making the East West Players leader the first person of color to helm the organization.

— ICYMI. Mo’Nique sues CBS, Paramount for ‘millions’ in profits from ‘The Parkers.’ Regal to reopen Pasadena’s former ArcLight theater. How Anaheim’s NAMM Show pivoted post-pandemic. Vidiots returns!

Numbers of the week

As expected, Writers Guild of America members voted by a record margin to grant their union the authority to call a strike, the latest step toward what would be the first work stoppage by Hollywood scribes in 15 years. The votes came in 98% in favor. The current contract is set to expire May 1.

Amazon Studios is getting some hefty tax credits from the state of California as the company moves its pricey spy thriller “Citadel” to the state from its previous production home in Britain.

The tech giant is receiving $25 million in state incentives for show, which stars Priyanka Chopra Jonas. “Citadel” will become the highest-spending TV production, in terms of qualified expenditures, to relocate to California in the history of the state’s expanded film and TV tax incentive program.

Amazon is getting an additional $10 million for an untitled series that will film in the Golden State.

Ari Aster’s film “Beau Is Afraid” grossed an impressive $320,396 in ticket sales from four screens in New York and Los Angeles, averaging out to $80,099 per location. That means the A24 pic, starring Joaquin Phoenix, has the biggest screen average of the year for a specialty release. The debut also represents the second-best per-screen-average launch for A24, behind Adam Sandler’s “Uncut Gems.”

Aster has established himself as a big draw for cinephiles with his highly stressful style honed in “Hereditary” and “Midsommar.” Per-screen averages need to be taken with a big lump of salt, though. Some films continue their momentum as they expand throughout the country, like “The Whale.” Others start strong and fall flat, like “Tar.”

Best of the web

— NPR ditches Twitter after being slapped with “state-affiliated media” label. (Gizmodo)

— NFL Sunday Ticket on YouTube starts at $249 for the 2023 season. Hoo boy! (The Verge)

— Lawmakers consider protections for children who appear on the internet. (Washington Post)

— Great read: Rupert Murdoch‘s succession drama. (Vanity Fair)

Films shoots

Another slow week for L.A. production activity, according to FilmLA data.

Finally ...

(Patrick Hruby / Los Angeles Times)

Want to better understand Los Angeles through literature and nonfiction? Check out The Times’ big new project, the Ultimate L.A. Bookshelf: 110 essential Los Angeles books. From “The Day of the Locust” to noir classics and “City of Quartz,” these works are all worth our time.