Why are HBO series not found in France?

You finally counted on redoing all of the Sopranothrow you into madness Game Of Thronesfinally discovering the genius of TheWirewatching for the fifteenth time band of brothers or explore New York with Sex And The City. So many good and ambitious resolutions that suddenly fell through.

Because since January 1, unless you have said stories in video boxes, the vast majority of series belonging to the HBO catalog have left the OCS platform which, until now, had had the exclusivity since 2017.

In France, OCS (Orange Cinema Series) was the official distributor of the American channel’s catalog and no less than 64 series disappeared from the catalog on January 1… Overnight. Without really warning even if this end was more or less dreaded.

OCS and HBO, which belongs to the Warner Bros Discovery group, did not renew the exclusive broadcasting contract which bound the two parties at the request of the American channel.

As a result, all HBO series older than two years have therefore left the OCS catalog. Newer series, such as the prequel to the series Game Of Thrones, House Of The DragonWhere The White Lotus, are not affected and remain accessible on the platform. A lesser evil.

As a result, many questions agitate French fans: where will these series, for the most part mythical, land?

The most logical answer would be on HBO Max, the 100% HBO streaming platform launched in 2022 in the USA but whose arrival date in France is constantly postponed (we are talking about 2024 now).

Last year, WarnerMedia, which owns HBO, merged with Discovery to create a new superpower: Warner Bros. Discovery.

Except that everyone already had a platform project in their boxes, Discovery + on one side, HBO Max on the other. And the group’s primary idea is to pool the two platforms in order to stop losing money in an ultra-competitive sector.

Hence the immediate absence of a broadcaster for these productions popular with fans of HBO series. But the concern does not only concern past series …

Succession, The Idol: where to watch this?

What about the upcoming series expected by millions of fans? The Last Of Usadaptation of the famous postapocalyptic video game expected on January 15 across the Atlantic, still has no known broadcaster in France.

In the same vein, OCS announced this summer that The Idola miniseries co-created by Sam Levinson (Euphoria) and rapper The Weeknd with Lily-Rose Depp in the cast, will soon be available on its channels.

But what about White House Plumbersdramatic comedy set in the Watergate scandal with Lena Headey and Justin Theroux, or The Sympathizer, 2016 Pulitzer Prize-winning adaptation by Park Chan-wook starring Robert Downey Jr.? And the next seasons of SuccessionHBO’s award-winning and standout series?

In a time when all novelties are expected like the messiah, this artistic blur questions and worries. Contacted by AFP, the Warner Bros Discovery group indicated that it wanted “share its content as widely as possible with the French public”.

“Discussions are ongoing”added the same source, planning to‘”say more soon”, without further details. Rumors speak of the arrival of certain series on Amazon Prime Video, others on Canal+.

As for the launch of HBO Max, which would join the many platforms present in France (Netflix, MyCanal, Paramount +, Disney +, Amazon Prime Video, Salto), nothing has yet been decided.

In the meantime, HBO series are untraceable. And that, it really fucks the morale in the air.