Going global has been good business for Max. Since the video streamers debut in 39 Latin American and Caribbean countries a year ago, it has expanded to more than 70 markets globally, including Europe and Asia. These new audiences have helped grow its user base. In its most recently reported quarter, Max added 7.2 million global subscribers, bringing its total subscriber count to 110 million.As its audience grows, Max is also focusing on premium content and cracking down on password-sharing. JB Perrette, president and CEO of Warner Bros. Discovery global streaming and games, appeared on Fast Companys Most Innovative Companies podcast to talk Maxs international expansion, how it leverages existing IP, and how the company is using AI to improve the streaming experience.Youve said that globalization is the biggest aspect of Maxs growth efforts. Why is that?The media business has always been a global business, but its been global as a collection of local or regional players. The advent of streaming has enabled an ability to program and entertain a global audience. We have franchises and intellectual propertylike DC characters or Harry Potterthat has global fan bases. Our original content like House of Dragon and Euphoria also has global fan bases. We used to only be able to tap into portions of that base and then wed sell those content rights to players in local markets. With the advent of streaming, were able to do it all ourselves. Long term were very bullish on what this means from the consumer standpoint and from a business perspective. Having a business that has all the advantages and the cost leverage of a global scale is an attractive and long-term lucrative business.Given the opportunity for global expansion, why did it take you so long to launch outside the U.S.?This company was born out of a legacy Warner media business and a legacy Discovery company that came together about two and a half years ago. Both companies have been very active globally, but they had been pursuing different strategies. We spent the first 12 to 18 months rebuilding the technology platform and the product itself to deliver [a better] experience, and support live events, high concurrency entertainment, and more features.We started it in May 2023 in the U S. At the beginning of 2024, Max was only available in one market with that new platform and new product. At the end of 2024, we [were] in 74 markets. Were in Latin America, key markets in Europe, in Asia, and obviously the U.S.Has your international expansion changed your programming?We already have a history of producing great local content around the world in Europe and Latin America in particular. We then have augmented it over these last few years by producing more local originals just for Max. Youre starting to see the fruits of that and youre starting to see that content do great numbers in its regional market. We just did a series based on the book and movie Like Water for Chocolate that came out in Mexico. Were leveraging franchises around the world that we may not necessarily own and were starting to see those stories travel better, because while they may be in different languages, theyre universal in themes.What are some of the product improvements youre trying to make over the next couple of years?Our head of product likes to say that the product journey is a game of inches. So literally the product road map and the feature improvements are hundreds of different small things. Weve rolled out this back half of this year what we call whole page optimization, which uses algorithms to recommend content based on what youve watched. The key art that shows up should also be personalized based on what we think is most appealing to you.You recently rolled out an ad-supported tier. How does that fit in with your strategy?If you exclude markets that we cant get into like China, Russia, and India, theres about 650 million broadband households [that could subscribe to Max]. We still have over close to half the world to get after. With our ad-supported offering, we can attract different customer bases that have different profiles. There are customers around the world who are more price sensitive and are willing to pay, you know, 30, 40, 50% less and still get [access to] our content. As you roll out in more markets around the world that have lower income or GDP per capita, [having an ad-supported tier] is a way to tap into more customers.Netflix was focused on subscriber growth for a long time. Now the company is focused on turning a profit. How do you balance those two factors at Max?As the leader in the space, they have the great advantage of already having reached a lot of scale around the world. Not surprisingly, at some point, you cant keep growing forever in terms of that scale. I think what theyve said about no longer reporting subscribers starting in next year is an acknowledgement of the fact that theyre becoming slightly more mature as a business.Were in a very different position. Were late to the party. The good news is we still have a lot of growth ahead of us over these next two years. We have opportunities [to acquire] tens of millions of subscribers as we finish our global rollout and demonstrate a better content lineup. That growth continues to be really important for us to report. Nobody has done profit and growth at the same time. I would argue that Max and WBD are the pioneers of that. We need to be able to show that this is a legitimate business and that we can grow it.We talk about streaming consolidation a lot at the office. Ten years from now, are we just going to see one or two dominant services?Were an IP and storytelling company. If youre a fan of Batman, youre not going to get it anywhere else. If youre a fan of Harry Potter, youre not going to get it anywhere else. Same for Superman, or 90 Day Fianc. Thats what makes us unique. So I dont believe its a winner-takes-all situation. I dont think theres a monopoly on ideas or great stories. The number of streamers will shrink down, but it wont just be due to M&A activity. Therell be some of that, but youre also going to see creative partnerships, like our Disney bundle.How is AI factoring into your business?Right now AI is used on the operating side, or the process side. Its helping distill and speed up processes. We were talking earlier about creating more video, interstitials or, trailers or break-in moments to be able to show you clips from the series in the streaming product. For some of the content, we have trailers, but trailers arent necessarily always the best selling proposition. Were leveraging different AI tools to help us take a first cut. A person can prompt AI with Pick up all the chatter that exists in the internet space about peoples favorite moments from the show, digest that, and give us five different 30-second edits of this series or movie that have the high likelihood of hitting the mark with customers. Then a human looks at those five cuts and makes a judgment as to the best one. Prior to those AI-enabled tools coming out, we would have had to spend a lot of time and a lot of money and a lot of effort just trying to get to those cuts. Were also using AI to figure out where to insert ad breaks on our ad-supported tier. We may be able to come up with an ad break methodology that is dynamic rather than one size fits all. Were also using it for closed-captioning.A lot of great material on Max comes from existing IP. The White Lotus sort of came out of nowhere during the pandemic. Do you think theres still a future for that kind of non-IP based hit?One hundred percent. Nobody is better in the business when it comes to creating new breakouts. If you think of the track record of HBO, the vast majority of stories theyve told are not coming from generally known media.The top four series right now for HBO are The Last of Us, Euphoria, The White Lotus, and House of Dragon. Euphoria is a true original, so is The White Lotus. Were doing more with existing franchises, but were not doing that instead of coming up with original ideas. Its a complement rather than a substitution.