When the many-headed demon of AT&T-Warner-HBO launched its attempt at a streaming service back in May, it came with everything you could want…except support for Roku and Fire TV, two of the most popular smart TV platforms on the planet. HBO Max still doesn’t work on Roku, but it looks like AT&T and Amazon have come to an agreement.
WarnerMedia made the announcement via press release: an HBO Max app will be available starting tomorrow, November 17th on Amazon Fire TV set-top boxes, dongles, and Fire-powered smart TVs. The same app will also be available for download on Amazon’s self-branded Fire tablets via the Amazon App Store. HBO Max subscribers, as well as those who subscribe to a more limited slate of HBO content through the Amazon Prime Video interface, will be able to long in and access their respective libraries.
WarnerMedia didn’t say what the holdup was: HBO Max was available on all other smart TV and app platforms for the last six months. But according to some inside baseball reporting at the time, the issue was negotiations over subscription revenue splits. Presumably, Roku and/or WarnerMedia are still holding out for a sweeter deal to bring HBO Max to Roku devices and smart TVs.
Source: WarnerMedia via What to Watch