Variety reports that original productions are being halted across Europe. Only Spain and France are unaffected by the streaming service's decision to stop producing originals in many countries. Warner Bros. Discovery is in the process of cutting some $3 billion in costs after it split from AT&T.
There is a review of the current content on the existing services. We have decided to remove a limited amount of original programming from HBO Max as well as cease our original programming efforts in the Nordics and Central Europe. We have stopped our development activities in the newer territories of the Netherlands and Turkey.
Lust and Kamikaze came from the Nordics and other areas. The Hungarian drama The Informant will also be removed from the service. Projects already in production and other approved shows may be sold to other platforms with Warner acting solely as producer.
Europe has been a good place for streaming content production, as platforms have hit the 30 percent local content quota required in major markets there. Variety said that the announcement may put a damper on that, as "redundancy are likely across [HBO Max's] European business."
Similar decision-making is taking place in all territories where the streamer operates, which spans the U.S., Latin America and parts of Europe. It's the first sign of a dark cloud during the era of peak TV.
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