Max will launch in Hong Kong, Taiwan and several southeast Asian countries, giving viewers access to “significantly better, richer content offering”, including popular franchises like Harry Potter and the DC Universe, said JB Perrette, WBD’s CEO and president of global streaming and games.

“The reality is Asia-Pacific is such a huge and important region, and while it was great to launch in North America, in South America, in Europe, we can’t really call ourselves a global product until we’re in Asia,” Perrette said in an interview last week.

WBD is gunning for the top-three position in its new Asian markets in terms of scale, engagement and profitability, the executive said.

In Hong Kong, US giant Netflix, local broadcaster ViuTV, and Google’s YouTube Premium were the three most popular on-demand video platforms as of June, according to Rakuten Insights data cited by Statista. Disney+, Apple TV+ and Amazon Prime Video are also available in the city.