Amazon Prime Instant Video to get exclusive access to treasure trove of HBO content

• Quentyn Kennemer
• 10 years ago

Suddenly, Amazon’s recent price hike for Amazon Prime makes a whole lot of sense. The company has just announced a multi-year deal with HBO that will deliver much of the cable network’s past content to Amazon Prime Instant Video users. The library is pretty impressive to start, with the first content scheduled to drop as early as May 21st. Here’s what you can look forward to in the near-immediate future:

• The Sopranos
• Six Feet Under
• The Wire
• Big Love
• Deadwood
• Eastbound & Down
• Family Tree
• Enlightened
• Treme
• early seasons of Boardwalk Empire and True Blood,
• mini-series like Band of Brothers and John Adams

Of noteworthy mention is the fact that more current HBO hits — such as Veep and The Newsroom — are currently missing, though Amazon says shows from newer series will be available for streaming approximately 3 years after their original airing date.

Notice I didn’t mention Game of Thrones? Because the press release didn’t make mention it either, leading us to believe that HBO hasn’t include their most popular show since the Sopranos in this deal.

 

That’s not confirmed, though, so we’ll be reaching out to Amazon and HBO to see if we can get a beeline on its whereabouts. Don’t hold your breath waiting for it to come, though — they do have to keep something to get people to stay subscribed to their premium offering.

All told, Amazon Prime probably isn’t worth HBO Go alone but if you’re already a subscriber and you’ve accepted the price hike, then this is a nice added bonus that should bring much entertainment to your living room.

On a slightly related note, if you have an Amazon Fire TV you’ll be happy to know that they’ve finally confirmed the arrival of an HBO Go app. No word on its arrival date just yet, but we imagine it won’t take longer than what it’ll take for the shows mentioned above to be made available for Prime users.

[via Amazon]