Amazon lands licensing deal for select HBO programming

[Shawn Knight]

Amazon and HBO have signed a multi-year licensing agreement that will see select HBO content arrive on Prime Instant Video next month. What’s more, HBO GO will be available on Amazon Fire TV by the end of the year according to a press release on the matter.

The deal, which marks the first time HBO programming has been licensed to an online-only subscription streaming service, will make available past hit shows like The Sopranos, Six Feet Under, The Wire, Big Love, Deadwood, Eastbound & Down, Family Tree, Enlightened, Treme, early seasons of Boardwalk Empire and True Blood, as well as mini-series like Band of Brothers, John Adams and more.

Unfortunately, some of the network’s newer content won’t be available anytime soon. For example, shows such as Girls, The Newsroom and Veep will become available approximately three years after airing on HBO. Worse yet, HBO’s most popular show – Game of Thrones – isn’t included in the deal.

While not likely to please everybody, the addition will no doubt help some feel better about Amazon’s recent Prime price hike. The annual membership increased from $79 to $99 last month, marking the first price increase since the service launched in 2005.

In addition to free two-day shipping and access to thousands of shows and movies via Prime Instant Video, the subscription service allows members to check out one book per month via the Kindle Owners Lending Library.

Permalink to story.

https://www.techspot.com/news/56504-amazon-lands-licensing-deal-for-select-hbo-programming.html

 

[Docus]

Just a clarification: HBO GO will be available for current HBO subscribers (who must get it through their cable company). It's the same deal as the HBO GO channel on Roku.

From the PR: "In addition, HBO GO will become available on Fire TV, targeting a launch by year-end. HBO GO is HBO’s authenticated streaming service offering subscribers instant access to over 1,700 titles online including every episode of new and classic HBO series, as well as HBO original films, miniseries, sports, documentaries, specials and a wide selection of blockbuster movies."

Until they offer a standalone subscription to HBO, this does nothing to solve the problem with Game of Thrones and other popular shows being unavailable without a massive cable bill (or piracy). Still, a welcome addition to the Prime Video catalog! Now if only Amazon would make the videos available on non-Kindle Android devices

 

[Divvet]

I love how these companies are just dragging their heals. They complain that GoT is the most pirated TV show but they make it almost impossible to watch without paying allot. The excuse in the UK is "but you can watch it on Sky". I have no intention of paying Sky their stupidly high prices for a ton of channels that I have no interest in, especially when I pay Netflix a couple of bucks a month to have access to a HUGE library. They proved it works with Breaking Bad. The day season 4 aired on Netflix the same day as it did in the US was the day I stopped pirating it.

 

[wiyosaya]

I love how these companies are just dragging their heals. They complain that GoT is the most pirated TV show but they make it almost impossible to watch without paying allot. The excuse in the UK is "but you can watch it on Sky". I have no intention of paying Sky their stupidly high prices for a ton of channels that I have no interest in, especially when I pay Netflix a couple of bucks a month to have access to a HUGE library. They proved it works with Breaking Bad. The day season 4 aired on Netflix the same day as it did in the US was the day I stopped pirating it.

Right there with you.

We recently switch to a HTPC setup because we were paying $87/mo US to Dish for a sum of about 5 channels we watched on a regular basis. Of all the stuff we watched, probably at least half of it is available either over-the-air, or on some other outlet like Netflix or Amazon Prime. The other stuff? There is so much out there right now that we will live without it, and we feel like there is nothing that we are missing. (We = my wife and I).

For me, articles like this seem to further emphasize the point that media coverage of "news items" like this are simply out of touch with the people in the real world. No matter who gets "exclusive" access to what, both Netflix and Amazon and other services tend to fill the gaps among them. If Netflix does not have something, Amazon or one of the others often does, and, usually, if one is willing to wait for content instead of having it the day it is broadcast, then there is no problem as one of the services eventually gets the content. Personally, I'll wait for it given that it means a significant reduction, in our case, of our monthly TV bill to about 1/4 what it was through Dish.