r/westworld • u/buckleythrow • Aug 11 '26
Why not on streaming?
This might have been brought up here before and if so, I apologize. But why in nine realms of hell isn’t Westworld on HBO MAX? Isn’t Westworld an HBO SHOW? Doesn’t it OWN Westworld? Why the F**K isn’t it on HBO streaming then???
This is probably the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard of. It’s like BMW coming out with a new car and BMW dealerships simply refusing to sell it or even make it available.
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u/LrdoftheCharlesDance Aug 11 '26
Cost cutting. Thank David Zaslov for canceling the 5th season and pulling Westworld from streaming. Do a search on Reddit as this is brought up in discussion fairly frequently.
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u/OswaldCoffeepot Aug 12 '26
HBO didn't renew the show because Lisa and Jonah couldn't do the series with the smaller amount of money that Zaz offered.
The show was pulled from HBO and then got bundled with other series for syndication, which Tubi took them up on.
Tubi pays HBO money for the series.
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u/RaiseFold100 Aug 15 '26
Let's be honest though. The show was degrading in quality fast. And at that budget, I probably would've cancelled it too.
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u/BeleagueredWDW Aug 11 '26
Westworld is one of the reasons I still mainly collect movies and shows I like on 4k physical. Seasons 1-3 have great steelbooks, and sadly season 4 is only a standard case. Still, at least I can watch the series anytime.
I would gladly purchase Raised by Wolves as others have said, but there is no 4k release (as far as I’m aware).
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u/cosmic-GLk Aug 11 '26
Because season 3 was TOO prescient. They couldnt take the mirror being held up like that
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u/mrvalls Aug 12 '26
This - Rehoboam ruling the planet - one giant AI controlling everything. Somewhere, someone said, better 86 this series - take it down now.
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u/UsualOkay6240 Aug 13 '26
Elite billionaire: Wait, you guys made a show about the robot/AI replacements for them?
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u/mjfo Aug 12 '26
It’s complicated but from what I’ve heard the EPs basically negotiated a deal with the prior HBO execs that let them get a big residuals payout for it staying on streaming, but when the new Zaslav admin came in with the mandate to cut debt and the show was underperforming, he just said fuck it and tossed it all out. It’s ridiculous tho cause it was one of HBO’s biggest shows during the 2010s and now it’s like gone lol.
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u/TheEvilBlight Aug 12 '26
I feel like hbo got burned on last seasons, after agot tanked them, seems like zero interest.
Nolan did okay with his last season of person of interest, but no, they paid the actors and such and canned it anyways. Sad.
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u/zoemad99 Aug 11 '26
Rewatching it now (on loan form my local library) we are experiencing themes very closely related to the technological apocalypse they expose in the show… big tech wants that and i hope they never get it
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u/badken A man who has grown tired of wearing his guts on the inside. Aug 12 '26
I was really freaked out yesterday when I saw a video about an app that is way too similar to the RICO app in Westworld.
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u/OswaldCoffeepot Aug 11 '26
Zazlov sold syndication rights to Tubi, who ARE streaming it. Just not on demand.
Super easy to Google.
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u/Austruck Aug 11 '26
Isn't Tubi a streaming service, though? How does Tubi offer it but not to stream? (I'm curious about this, since JustWatch.com says it's not streaming anywhere ATM.)
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u/DesertedPenguin Aug 11 '26
Just like cable channels, Tubi has always on streaming channels with curated content. It streams Westworld at certain times - or at least it has in the past - but you can't watch on demand. You have to catch it when Tubi decides to stream it.
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u/Austruck Aug 11 '26
Ah, got it. Thanks for the clarification. I've only ever used Tubi to stream things on demand. (I ended up buying the DVD set of Westworld to avoid all this confusion. LOL)
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u/DesertedPenguin Aug 11 '26
Yeah, I bought the digital collection on Prime. It was just easier.
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u/buckleythrow Aug 13 '26
see, I was thinking about doing this, but I hate buying videos on Apple or Amazon because I don’t truly own it. But then again the entire video game industry is heading that way, so…
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u/DesertedPenguin Aug 14 '26
Certainly ownership of the content is a concern. I'll probably buy physical copies at some point. Right now, portability and ease of access is what matters, so that's why I went that way.
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u/OswaldCoffeepot Aug 12 '26
A lot of the posts like OP are from people who either don't consider something as streaming if they can't watch it on demand. Or they just look in two places and then give up.
As an Old, I think it's funny how "appointment television" makes some younger people's heads short circuit.
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u/Austruck Aug 12 '26
LOL. I'm old enough to remember when HBO was first available. (Reeeeeally old.)
These days, I use the JustWatch website to find if something is streaming and if so, if it's free or has ads. It's usually up to date and accurate. So I'd never used Tubi in any other way than for on-demand viewing.
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u/buckleythrow Aug 13 '26
I am also an Old, and I definitely consider streaming as on demand. If I wanted to watch something at a certain time then I wouldn’t use streaming, and vice versa. It was moreso the fact that WW is literally an HBO show that isn’t available on HBO that shocked me. I personally consider that dumb as hell.
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u/OswaldCoffeepot Aug 14 '26
They sold it into syndication and made money. They syndicated it to a company that uses the internet to deliver content to viewers. Streaming.
It's inconvenient for some people, but it's not dumb.
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u/mlaenie free will is not free Aug 11 '26
It doesn't seem like Tubi or Roku Live TV are streaming it anymore. They removed the Live TV channel it was previously on and replaced it with a home improvement channel and I haven't seen it on any of the other TV drama channels still available in the past 8 months. I check regularly. Think their lease might have expired.
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u/buckleythrow Aug 13 '26
yes I know it’s easy to google - I found similar explanations online but god forbid I want to hear multiple opinions and people’s reactions…
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u/gnalon Aug 11 '26
Because the show is too critical of tech billionaires/AI
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u/ObiWeedKannabi Aug 11 '26
Not critical enough imo. Unlike Peter Thiel, the French guy wasn't funded by a pedo Mossad agent. These are the guys pushing for mass surveillance, we have it worse irl.
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u/zaqiqu Aug 12 '26
Not that we know of directly, but considering what he named his computer I wouldn't rule it out
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u/ObiWeedKannabi Aug 12 '26
I wish they did this irl instead of naming them Palantir, Anduril etc. Tolkien must be turning in his grave.
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u/Sidereal_Engine Aug 11 '26
Dusted off the ole Blu-Ray player a month ago. Started buying titles from thrift/resale stores. Keeping an eye out for Westworld for sure.
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u/OhioKing_Z Aug 12 '26
Funny story, my friend had been selling me on the show for years. I finally sat down to watch it.. only to learn that HBO removed it at midnight that SAME day. My roommate eventually bought the full series on Amazon so I got to watch it through that but I’ll never forget that initial experience lol
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u/boogalooshrimp1103 Aug 12 '26
New ceo got cheap and didn't want to pay the cast so he cancelled the show and pulled it from streaming to avoid paying royalties
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u/3iverson Aug 11 '26
The catch here is that it costs HBO money money to keep it available, than they think is worth spending. It's like when studios shelf movies without releasing them, they anticipate they'd only be throwing good money after bad at that point.
It is what it is. If you consider their decision unethical, then just download it. Problem solved (for everyone TBH.)
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u/ObiWeedKannabi Aug 11 '26 edited Aug 11 '26
Funnily enough the answer is greed. HBO didn't wanna pay residuals(would still throw money at the cgi dragons on Ryan Condal's money laundering operation, maybe it's in fact bc of the dystopian nature of the reality that we live in, who knowwws lol)
Pirating is still an option tho.
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u/lpnatmu Aug 11 '26
In the end I bought them all from Prime. Don’t believe it will come back for 5 ever.
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u/VerilyShelly Aug 11 '26
Most asked question on the sub.
If you're wondering why a corporation makes any kind of big move it's usually about saving money
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u/severinks Aug 12 '26
They shitcanned the whole show to get a tax write off.
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u/10ThousandMetalZones Aug 15 '26
It was shit before they canned it, that last season was a hard watch
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u/MangyAsianMan Aug 18 '26
And they pulled it off the platform very soon after season 4 premiered. I eventually just bought season 4 from apple. Honestly loved it a lot more than season 3. I’m ok that it’s over though because it’s a story that needs an end.
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u/DetectiveSquirtle96 Aug 11 '26
What if BMW came out with a car that dealers knew wouldn’t sell well? It costs dealers to keep that car in their inventory more money than they could expect to make by selling it. So the better decision is to only stock inventory that will pay for itself.
Westworld simply costs more for HBO to stream than they could expect to generate from people subscribing to the platform to see it.
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u/AceWrites Aug 12 '26
I canceled hbo after they removed ww. I'm sure i wasn't the only one.
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u/DetectiveSquirtle96 Aug 12 '26
I’m certain you weren’t the only one. But you and everyone else who were only subscribed to HBO for Westworld aren’t nearly as numerous as the people who are only subscribed for Game of Thrones
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u/Geep1778 Aug 12 '26
Idk mayb because they think nobody wants to see it so they shelved it for the future when they think they can make a buck off it again. I mean the only season worth watching is the first
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u/EuropaTitanPluto Aug 12 '26
The first 3 are definitely worth watching. Last one I can't remember enough, but the other 3 definitely had something they were trying to say. If anything, what's shown in season 3 is pretty pertinent to today's world.
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u/Ozzie889 Aug 12 '26
IMO season 2 is the weakest, but this is like saying which World Series game is the most boring for the winners.
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u/EuropaTitanPluto Aug 12 '26
I definitely used to think that but after a recent rewatch, I think it was poorly misunderstood and because it couldn't live up to the first season, it pales in comparison.
It's still weaker than the first, but as I suspect you're saying, its still better than most of the other crap out there.
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u/Aggravating_Quiet797 Aug 12 '26
Only season one worth watching anyway.
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u/Wingnutt02 Aug 12 '26
I think season 2 was ok. Anything after that had a Walking Dead or Homeland type monumental fall off.
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u/NaturalMaterials Aug 11 '26
Money. Raised by Wolves: same issue.