HBO Max under its old management team pulled the premium streaming service off of Amazon’s Channels, not to be confused with the Fire TV app store. Amazon Channels is a service that Amazon set up to allow users to sign up for streaming services through their Amazon accounts as opposed to creating new profiles with partner services. HBO had a history on the platform since its launch but chose to pull out of the arrangement with Amazon along with Roku where it had a similar arrangement.
Why this happened in the first place probably had to do with what it always does, money. Under such arrangements, subscription fees are distributed differently than when a customer downloads an app to a platform and set up a customer profile and registers a credit card, and so on. It was reported that when HBO Max pulled out of the Amazon Channels arrangement it lost 5 million subscribers. Did they get those customers back later? We don’t know. But one thing is for sure. If your product is easier to find and easier to start using it is going to help your numbers. When you work with Fire TV in that manner it means you have shelf space at a store frequented by used by over 40 percent of the streaming market, plus everyone with an Amazon Prime app regardless of the streamer they access it on. HBO Max and Discovery+ will eventually be combined into one service.
The news comes on the heels of another collaboration between WarnerBros Discovery that will bring Warner Brothers animated projects to Amazon Prime video. That these two announcements happened within a week of each other should not be overlooked. It could be that WBD is working on a number of angles with Amazon Prime. Next let’s keep an eye out for any shuttered series or removed movies to be available through Amazon.
