Media Industry Conversations – Johannes Larcher (Former Head of International, HBO Max)

Johannes Larcher (Former Head of International, HBO Max)

When: Monday, October 17, 2022 – 5:00-6:15 pm CT
Note: Speaker sessions are subject to change based on evolving guest schedules.

Please join us for a Q&A session where we discuss Johannes Larcher’s career trajectory, his roles and responsibilities, and his views on the current state of the media industries.

To RSVP, please fill out this form & we will send out the Zoom link day-of.

Speaker Biography

Johannes Larcher currently serves as the CEO of Storytel, the Sweden-based and NASDAQ-listed audiobook-streaming leader. Until August 2022, he was the Head of HBO Max International at WarnerBros Discovery, responsible for the international roll-out and management of WBD’s direct-to-consumer product HBO Max, which launched successfully in the U.S. in May 2020 and introduced a lower priced, advertising-supported tier a year later. In June 2021, Larcher and team kicked off the global rollout of HBO Max by launching the streaming platform in 39 markets across Latin America and the Caribbean. In October 2021, HBO Max went live in the Nordics and Spain, and in March 2022, it launched in Central and Eastern Europe, Portugal, and the Netherlands. Today, HBO Max is available in 61 countries.

Before Larcher began as Head of HBO Max International at WarnerMedia in July 2020, he served as the Managing Director of Digital at MBC Group, the Middle East’s leading media company based in Dubai. In this role, he successfully transformed the group’s flagship digital product, Shahid VIP, into the world’s largest Arabic language video streaming service with more than 2 million subscribers. From 2016 to 2018, he served as the Co-Founder and CEO of SubVRsive in Austin, Texas, a WPP-funded, Emmy-nominated virtual and augmented reality studio. Larcher also worked as Hulu’s Senior Vice President, International, where he led the launch and initial growth phase of Hulu Japan. Before this, he was President and CEO of the online video education start-up Academy123, which sold to Discovery. He also served as GM, International, for the paid search pioneer Overture Services until its acquisition by Yahoo! in 2003.

Larcher holds a Master of Arts from the University of Music and Performing Arts in Vienna and a Master of Business Administration from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. He is a member of the International Academy of Television Arts & Sciences and a Board member of Austin Opera