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Amazon and HBO Ink Exclusive Multi-Year Deal to Bring Award-Winning HBO Programming To Prime Members

For the first time ever, favorite HBO series like, The Sopranos, Six Feet Under, The Wire, Big Love, Eastbound & Down, Oz, Band of Brothers and Deadwood, as well as Early Seasons of Boardwalk Empire and True Blood, will become available on Amazon Prime Instant Video

HBO GO coming to Amazon’s Fire TV

SEATTLE—April 23, 2014—(NASDAQ:AMZN)—Amazon.com, Inc. today announced a content licensing agreement with HBO, making Prime Instant Video the exclusive online-only subscription home for select HBO programming. The collection includes award-winning shows such as 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. Previous seasons of other HBO shows, such as Girls, The Newsroom and Veep will become available over the course of the multi-year agreement, approximately three years after airing on HBO. The first wave of content will arrive on Prime Instant Video May 21. This is the first time that HBO programming has been licensed to an online-only subscription streaming service. This programming will remain on all HBO platforms.

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.

“HBO has produced some of the most groundbreaking, beloved and award-winning shows in television history, with more than 115 Emmys amongst the assortment of shows coming to Prime members next month,” said Brad Beale, Director of Content Acquisition for Amazon. “HBO original content is some of the most-popular across Amazon Instant Video—our customers love watching these shows. Now Prime members can enjoy a collection of great HBO shows on an unlimited basis, at no additional cost to their Prime membership.”

“Amazon has built a wonderful service—we are excited to have our programming made available to their vast customer base and believe the exposure will create new HBO subscribers,” said Charles Schreger, President of Programming Sales for HBO.

“As owners of our original programming, we have always sought to capitalize on that investment. Given our longstanding relationship with Amazon, we couldn’t think of a better partner to entrust with this valuable collection,” said Glenn Whitehead, Executive Vice President of Business and Legal Affairs, who along with Schreger headed up HBO’s negotiating team. “We’re also excited to bring HBO GO to Amazon’s Fire TV. The features like unified voice search will provide a compelling experience for HBO customers.”




Beginning May 21, Amazon Prime members will have unlimited streaming access to:

- All seasons of revered classics such as The Sopranos, The Wire, Deadwood, Rome and Six Feet Under, and of recent favorites such as Eastbound & Down, Enlightened and Flight of the Conchords

- Epic miniseries, including Angels in America, Band of Brothers, John Adams, The Pacific and Parade’s End

- Select seasons of current series such as Boardwalk Empire, Treme and True Blood

- Hit original movies like Game Change, Too Big To Fail and You Don’t Know Jack

- Pedigreed documentaries including the Autopsy and Iceman series, Ghosts of Abu Ghraib and When the Levees Broke

- Hilarious original comedy specials from Lewis Black, Ellen DeGeneres, Louis CK and Bill Maher


The multi-year deal will bring additional seasons of the current series named above, along with early seasons of other series like Girls, The Newsroom and Veep to Prime members over the life of the deal.

This is a pretty huge get for Amazon.

 

[jtb]

huge get for Amazon Prime. now just make your UI not fucking horrible, please

 

[V_Ben]

Whoa. That's huge.

 

[gutshot]

Interesting that Game of Thrones isn't mentioned at all in the release, considering it is HBO's biggest show. I guess it won't be on Prime for some reason?

 

[DrFunk]

Whoa, this is BIG

 

[RPGCrazied]

I have HBO, but could they not even get the first Season of Game of Thrones?

 

[bigkrev]

So it looks like all old shows will have full runs, and currently running shows will have the first season or 2?

 

[ZealousD]

CTRL+F

Game of Thrones.

Not found. =(

 

[slit]

Well I guess they had to do something to justify Prime's higher price. It's still not worth it though.

 

[kick51]

I keep reading the title and it keeps on not sinking in

wow!

 

[styl3s]

This is fucking huge.

 

[Cru]

3 year wait from when the show airs. lol

 

[GuitarAtomik]

That's pretty crazy. I guess I'll finally watch The Sopranos and Deadwood.

 

[Talon]

HBO doing everything they can to mess with Netflix.

 

[ReturnOfTheRAT]

Always bet on Bezos.

 

[Fantastical]

CTRL+F

Game of Thrones.

Not found. =(

Exactly. Still big though. The Wire and The Sopranos are definitely nice additions.

 

[styl3s]

3 year wait from when the show airs. lol

You don't use Netflix/Prime to watch the latest episodes, you get HBOGO, Cable or Hulu if you want the latest episodes of shows.

Can you watch all these shows on Netflix? Hulu? No? It's huge. It's huge because this means HBO is finally open to allowing services other then HBO GO to use their shows.

 

[iammeiam]

Netflix must be pissed--this is the first exclusive content they've lost out on that I think is a Huge Deal.

 

[Retrocide]

Amazon really needed this, of all the streaming services Amazon prime is the only one I don't use even though I have access to it.

 

[SimleuqiR]

In the mean time I will split the cost of an HBO subscription with my brother and access it through his HBO Go account.

It's just a lot more convenient to have access to GoT at 9:01 PM EST on Sundays. On top of all their back catalog.

 

[Unspeakable Evil]

Oh wow. That's a good grab for Amazon.

 

[theytookourjobz]

Justified alone makes Prime worth the price. And all of the old HBO shows like The Wire and Deadwood are great.

 

[kehs]

Probably should have wait on the fire tv launch so it coincides with this.

Amateurs.

 

[ComputerMKII]

Congrats Amazon!

 

[Snkfanatic]

Holy hell, this is huge. May have to get Prime now.

 

[Hamster Plugin]

Interesting that Game of Thrones isn't mentioned at all in the release, considering it is HBO's biggest show. I guess it won't be on Prime for some reason?

They need to sell cable HBO with something. HBO shows are very expensive and if Amazon was their only source of income they wouldn't be sustainable.

The story mentions a 3 year delay. Game of Thrones started in 2011 so the first season may be there next year.

 

[Ken Masters]

Why would HBO do this when they have HBOGO?

 

[RiZ III]

I just want to be able to purchase got episodes as they are released

 

[Somnid]

Why would HBO do this when they have HBOGO?

Isn't HBO Go completely handicapped because you still need a cable sub?

 

[Talon]

Why would HBO do this when they have HBOGO?

1. Undercut Netflix
2. HBO GO doesn't really compare here because they don't really sell it as a separate service. It is primarily an add-on to current calbe subscribers, although since December they've allowed Comcast to bundle it with internet-only services in certain markets, so I imagine there's a small fee inserted there - likely less than the HBO carrier fee but still in the range of $5/user.

 

[gazele]

Isn't HBO Go completely handicapped because you still need a cable sub?

Yep, for now at least

 

[demosthenes]

Why would HBO do this when they have HBOGO?

I'm guessing there is some legal restriction in offering HBOGO as a streaming service by itself, that's why they haven't done it. Something has to be there with cable companies. I imagine their endgame is to have HBOGO similar to netflix in the future but right now this is just a stepping stone for them. Sort of similar to the way Target used Amazon to enter selling goods online.

 

[gutshot]

Why would HBO do this when they have HBOGO?

 

[styl3s]

Why would HBO do this when they have HBOGO?

Because people who are in a position to get or have HBOGO will keep and get HBOGO for current seasons/episodes.

Why wouldn't HBO do this? they get a shit load of money for letting another service use a bunch of old seasons. It benefits everyone.

 

[Kaladin]

Fuck.

Yes.

I will be re-watching The Sopranos and The Wire soon.

 

[QuiteWhittle]

Ah, sweet. Can't wait to watch Deadwood and The Sopranos for the first time.

 

[Van Owen]

Looks like mostly shows that don't air anymore except for TB and Boardwalk. I wonder how current they will be with those shows.

Still a big get. And of course HBO GO is coming to Fire TV, I don't know why people thought otherwise.

 

[Faiz]

I understand the need for a delay. I get it. But three years seems farcical.

 

[SimleuqiR]

Why would HBO do this when they have HBOGO?

To make more money
To put pressure on Netflix
To also put pressure on the Cable Companies.

HBO original content is very popular. They are just trying to maximize their profits.

Not everyone is willing to pay for an HBO subscription.

 

[Blader]

Damn, that's nice. Especially since the Prime console app is WAY better than HBO Go.

Hopefully this means Amazon will put The Larry Sanders Show back up on Prime sometime soon.

 

[Krauser Kat]

Why would HBO do this when they have HBOGO?

Its free money for them.

I have been watching way more Prime Instant Video than Netflix lately.

With Hannibal and The Americans.

 

[Effect]

I guess HBO makes way to much money off of the Game of Thrones individual episode purchases and box sets (dvd and blu-ray) to allow it to be apart of the Prime free viewing.

 

[Loomba]

I'll at least get the 30 day trial now, massive get for Amazon.

 

[Jarrod38]

Is Triple H running Amazon now?

 

[Interfectum]

Amazon gonna take over the entertainment/tech world.

 

[Rentahamster]

Whoa.

 

[Renoir]

yes. now that give me courage to fight with that awfull UI to watch something.
Looking forward to Boardwalk.

 

[flyinpiranha]

Fucking awesome! I have been waiting for a good way to finish The Wire and never watched the Sopranos.

 

[teruterubozu]

Looks like Carnivale, Oz, Big Love and Bored to Death are also included:

http://www.amazon.com/HBO-Providers..._m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_r=1JX2XY86VA095M8X4QHE

Nice.

No Sex & The City though?

Full show list (excluding mini-series and original movies):

"The HBO Collection"
Boardwalk Empire
Bored to Death
Eastbound & Down
Enlightened
Treme
True Blood
Band of Brothers
Big Love
Carnivàle
Deadwood
Flight of the Conchords
In Treatment
Mildred Pierce
Oz
The Pacific
Rome
Six Feet Under
The Sopranos
The Wire

 

[sixteen-bit]

That's one way to add value to the newly higher-priced Prime service.