How can you watch streaming services based in the USA from the UK?
There are lots of streaming services already available in the UK, but one of the major options that’s available in America remains absent from British screens at the moment.
Warner Bros Discovery, a company that’s celebrating its 100th birthday this year, has a streaming service in the US that’s called Max. It used to be called HBO Max until it was rebranded, and it’s the online home for lots and lots of Warner Bros films and TV shows.
At the moment, for people in the UK, you need a server in USA to access it. We’re coming to that in a minute, though.
Amongst the hits on the Max service at the time of writing are Naked Attraction and the new Interview With The Vampire series, with Meg 2: The Trench lined up shortly as well as DC films The Flash and Blue Beetle. A mix of films and TV programmes that’s attracted over 70 million users.
But none in the UK. Whilst Max is available in lots of countries around the world. There’s a version of Max in various parts of Europe, for instance, as well as Canada, Australia and New Zealand.
So why the problem in the UK? Well, it goes to a longstanding deal that Warner Bros has had in place with the Sky network over here. Sky’s Sky Atlantic channel has a distribution deal in place with HBO, and that most recently was a five year deal, signed to give Sky the chance to run HBO shows on its services before anyone else in the territory.
This deal was signed before Warner Bros solidified its plans for its HBO Max streaming service in the first place, and it runs for five years. The agreement – or at least the latest extension of it – was inked back in 2019, and expires in 2024. Warner Bros thus had its hands tied: whilst it’s served notice that it won’t be renewing the deal, it curtailed its plans to expand into streaming in the UK.
Where, then, does that leave people wanting to subscribe to Max in Britain? Well, option one is obviously to wait it out. The plan is for Max to launch formally in 2025, so there’s still a bit of time to go there.
The other option – and it’s something lots of people are turning to – is to look at a VPN service. This way, using a VPN, you can take out a subscription to a service such as Max, and be able to watch it from the UK.
There are lots of VPN providers available, and there are lots of streaming options that are available in the USA but not in the UK too. That’s on top of films, shows and digital boxsets that currently are restricted to the US market as well.
It’s a neat, easy answer that allows you to pay for your shows and watch them, wherever they happen to be in the world. Happy viewing – and don’t forget the popcorn!