HBO Max is doing clipping.
The Warner Bros. Discovery-owned streamer today announced HBO Max Shorts: a new vertical, scrollable feed within the Max app that’s designed to pump up discovery by tantalizing subscribers with bite-sized bits from programming they haven’t watched.
Per Digital Trends, the feed will include trailers, clips, and bonus content–all of which, of course, links back to the full show and/or movie with just one tap.
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How does HBO pick what scenes end up in the feed? Well, like so much of the short content that’s drip-fed to users across platforms these days, it starts with AI. HBO has an in-house machine learning tool that apparently scans through its library of content and looks for high-impact moments that serve as emotional cliffhangers to stoke viewers’ interest in the full version.
Digital Trends reports that human editors still make the final call on what gets the green light to join HBO Max Shorts, though.
For now, the feed is rolling out to select U.S.-based iOS users; HBO plans to roll it out to more people later.
The idea of a short-form feed within a long-form TV/movie streaming service is not a novel one. Over the last couple months, Disney, Netflix, and Paramount have each made moves to add short-form content to their streaming apps. Some of that content is akin to HBO Max Shorts–clips of longer programming–and some of it is freshly produced micro video aimed at engaging viewers with TikTok attention spans.
And all of these streaming services are taking cues from digital platforms and content creators. Clipping, where you flood socials like TikTok, YouTube Shorts, and Reels with short videos that link out to longer-form content, has become a top audience growth strategy for creators like MrBeast, with some spending hundreds of thousands paying fleets of people to edit and post clips.
Some streamers, like Peacock and Paramount, are already reaching out to more viewers with clip content on these same platforms. Peacock’s YouTube channel brings over 100 million views a month thanks to short clips and longer clip compilations from hits like Yellowstone. Paramount gets around 60 million vpm on its own channel.
HBO Max is no stranger to this strat, either. Its channel, rife with clips and behind-the-scenes content from shows like Euphoria and House of the Dragon, brings over 120 million vpm.
What’s interesting about this new move is that it’s trying to replicate the viral discovery of YouTube, TikTok, and Instagram within its own app, capitalizing on viewers being accustomed to social media recommendation feeds that tell them what to watch next.
This could be advantageous for Max, if its recommendation algorithm is as sharp as TikTok’s and if complacent viewers are content to be nudged toward their next binge.
But it also keeps viewers within the Max ecosystem, when Max’s current wider clip distribution strategy taps into digital platforms’ special sauce: making things go viral. We’ve seen the resurgence of older films like Jennifer’s Body and the making of new cult hits like Skinamarink made by people posting online. There’s also House, which ended in 2012 but crested passionate new fandom horizons after Netflix acquired the rights in 2024, thanks to people posting relentlessly about it on socials.
We’re curious how this ends up working for HBO. Either way, one thing is certain: More short content is coming to streaming services–and the deluge isn’t stopping anytime soon.
