WarnerMedia and Amazon have come to a last-minute agreement to allow HBO Now subscribers to continue watching content on Fire TV devices, according to a report from Variety. As the two companies negotiate a deal for the new HBO Max streaming service, this interim deal will at least mean that HBO Now subscribers won’t lose access to the service on August 1.
As the report explains, the original deal between Amazon and WarnerMedia was set to expire on July 31. The expiration of this deal would have meant that legacy HBO Now subscribers would lose access to HBO content completely on Fire TV devices.
Today’s extension of the deal means that people who subscribe to HBO Now will continue to be able to watch the streaming service through the Fire TV platform. The one change will be that the HBO app on Fire TV will no longer be branded as HBO Now. Instead, HBO will change the app to simply “HBO” as it works to revamp its branding.
If this all sounds confusing, it’s because it is. HBO Max is the newest streaming service from WarnerMedia, and it replaces both HBO Go and HBO Now. HBO Go allowed users to sign in with their cable subscription to watch HBO content, whereas HBO Now allowed users to subscribe to HBO directly as a standalone service.
The report explains:
Amazon notified Fire TV customers of the development in emails this week. In addition, the e-commerce giant noted that customers can continue watching HBO content on Amazon devices with an HBO subscription via Prime Video Channels (which is one of the points of contention in the HBO Max negotiations, as WarnerMedia wants all distributors to carry HBO Max as a standalone service).
Unfortunately, this does not mean anything for HBO Go users. WarnerMedia is moving ahead with its plans to discontinue the HBO Go app for all platforms on July 31. Unless something changes before then, this means that people who would have accessed HBO on Fire TV through HBO Go are out of luck until HBO and Amazon reach an agreement to bring HBO Max to Fire TV.
Things are significantly more straightforward for iPhone, iPad, and Apple TV users. A new HBO Max app replaces the HBO Now application, although HBO also backed out of Apple TV Channels. For most telecom subscribers, they can log into HBO Max using the same credentials they would have used in HBO Go.
In other streaming news today, Comcast announced during its second-quarter earnings report that Peacock has added 10 million subscribers since April. The service initially launched to Comcast subscribers and came to all iPhone, iPad, and Apple TV users earlier this month.
Finally, ViacomCBS announced significant updates to its CBS All Access streaming service this morning. This includes a redesigned CBS All Access application, as well as over 3,500 new episodes of various TV shows and an expanded library of movies.
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