HBO Max launched Wednesday — only you won’t find it on your Roku device.
What’s going on:
- The new streaming service HBO Max launched Wednesday, bringing TV viewers access to television shows like “Friends” and “The Big Bang Theory,” as well as movies like “The Lord of the Rings” and the “Harry Potter” saga.
- But HBO Max did not launch on Roku devices.
- Roku and WarnerMedia have been in discussions for months working on a deal. According to Variety, the deal surrounds how much money Roku would make from hosting the app.
- Roku said in a statement: “As the No. 1 streaming platform in the U.S. with over 40 million active accounts that rely upon Roku to access their favorite programs and to discover new content, we are focused on entering into win-win distribution agreements with all new OTT services as part of their launch strategies. While we don’t typically comment on specific deal terms or negotiations, the fact is that in this instance while we believe that HBO Max would benefit greatly from distribution on Roku at launch, we do not currently have an agreement in place.”
- HBO Max is also missing on Amazon Fire devices. Amazon has its own streaming service, Amazon Prime, so it’ll be harder to strike a deal.
How social media reacted
A number of people reacted to the news on social media, explaining how they are not included in the HBO Max launch because of Roku.
Grrr, I didn’t realize HBO Max and Roku hadn’t made a deal yet. I wouldn’t have signed up for HBO Max already if I knew that.
— Eric Goldman (@TheEricGoldman) May 26, 2020
@Roku and @amazonfiretv users are left out, why? pic.twitter.com/snN6NNmtyo
— NC Optimist (@NC_Optimist) May 27, 2020
HBO Max being unavailable on Roku (or Amazon Fire) seems pretty dumb!
— Joe Reid (@joereid) May 27, 2020