Disney+ Steals Huge Program From Max

Disney+ has taken one of the biggest and most famous programs from HBO and its streaming service, Max.

The streaming wars have gotten especially fierce in recent months, as every service from Disney+ to Max to Netflix to Amazon Prime Video struggles to find a way to add more subscribers from a diminishing pool every financial quarter to appease shareholders.

To remain profitable, streaming services have been doing everything from cracking down on password-sharing, adding commercials and newsbreaks into movies, raising prices, and cutting content for tax breaks and to avoid paying creator royalties.

Related: Disney Ends Disney+ Streaming Service, New Change Places Netflix in Charge

Even more dramatically, streamers like Disney+, Netflix, and Max have begun doing the previously unthinkable and licensing out original programming to other services. Disney+ has begun kicking Marvel shows over to Hulu, Max has licensed Dwayne Johnson’s Ballers to Netflix, and so forth.

But keeping original, unique programming is still critical for streaming services in order to keep customers paying subscription fees (particularly as seemingly every streamer jacks up the price to near-cable TV levels).

Thus, HBO and Max can ill-afford to lose a program that it has hosted for years: Rock & Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony.

But that is exactly what has happened. Disney+ has seized the rights to stream the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame ceremony from HBO (per Variety), which has had exclusive rights to broadcast the program for years.

However, HBO previously only showed edited versions of the ceremony (often weeks later), while Disney+ will stream the program live for the first time ever on November 3.

According to the Chairman of the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Foundation, John Sykes, “This historic live stream on Disney+ and special on ABC is a testament to the diverse sounds and enduring power of rock ‘and’n’ roll,” while the Executive Vice President of Unscripted and Alternative Entertainment for Walt Disney Television Rob Mills said, “We are so excited to offer audiences a front-row seat when they tune in to Disney+ and ABC.”

Related: ‘Spider-Man’ Returns to Streaming Platform, Not Disney+

The ABC version of the ceremony will not air until January and only in an edited form.

This year’s inductees to the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame include Willie Nelson, Sheryl Crow, Missy Elliott and Chaka Khan, all of whom are expected to perform. They will also be joined by Elton John, St. Vincent, Chris Stapleton, Brandi Carlile, Dave Matthews, H.E.R., and New Edition, all of whom will be performing tributes or collabs.

Warner Bros Discovery, the parent company of HBO and Max, is locked in heated competition with the Walt Disney Company to try to climb the hill and finally challenge Netflix as the most popular streaming service around. Losing a big, unique program like this surely won’t help them.

Is Disney+ winning the war against Max and other services? Let us know your thoughts in the comments below!