Friends will be on HBO Max for UK launch after leaving Netflix

Friends will move to the new HBO Max UK streaming service after leaving Netflix this month, The i Paper can reveal.

Fans were left distraught at the news that the sitcom, which has won a new generation of fans on Netflix, will be removed from the platform on December 30.

One viewer said the news was “probably the worst thing that’s ever happened to me”, while another said she was “genuinely heartbroken”.

Friends, which has bounced around a number of channels since the series ended in 2004, will be one of the launch attractions on HBO Max, the new streamer set to launch at the end of March next year.

Prices have yet to be revealed for HBO Max but a basic package with ads is expected to retail at around £5.99 a month, rising to £15.99 for a Premium ad-free service. Sky subscribers with entertainment packages will be offered the basic Max tier at no extra cost.

All 236 episodes of Friends, which made stars of Jennifer Aniston, Courteney Cox, Lisa Kudrow, Matt LeBlanc, Matthew Perry and David Schwimmer, are expected to land on the new pay-platform from the network behind The White Lotus and Game of Thrones.

Although Friends can be seen on Comedy Central and Channel 5, viewers lamented its loss from Netflix.

Friends was “the ONLY thing I go onto Netflix every day for”, one fan wrote on X. “I watch it non-stop back-to-back, my absolute comfort show.”

Ofcom found that Friends became the UK’s most-watched subscription show when the series arrived on Netflix in 2018, beating The Grand Tour and The Crown.

Friends’ move to HBO Max emerged on the day that Netflix agreed to buy HBO parent company Warner Bros Discovery in an $82.7bn (£62bn) deal that will reshape the established Hollywood film and TV industry.

Netflix would take control of franchises including Harry Potter, Superman and Batman, as well as HBO’s catalogue of “prestige” TV dramas including The White Lotus, The Sopranos and Succession, if the deal is approved by regulators.

Netflix could offer customers HBO Max together with its own streamer as a competitively-priced package, as it takes on Disney, Amazon and Apple in the battle for subscribers.

Max exclusives will include a new comedy drama written by and starring Sharon Horgan (Bad Sisters) and The Pitt, a hospital-set series from the team behind ER, starring Noah Wyle. A blockbuster new Harry Potter series, set to run for a decade, will arrive in 2027.

Asked whether HBO would remain a separate streaming service after the Netflix deal, Netflix co-CEO Greg Peters said he believed the HBO brand was important for consumers, but added: “We think it’s quite early to get into the specifics of how we’re going to tailor this offering for consumers.”