NFT: HBO content coming to Amazon Prime

I'm seriously thinking of dumping DirecTV and getting the Amazon Fire.

argggg....

Comment time limit. Please wait 38 seconds and then hit submit.

Comment time limit. Please wait 28 seconds and then hit submit.

Comment time limit. Please wait 21 seconds and then hit submit

Comment time limit. Please wait 13 seconds and then hit submit.

Comment time limit. Please wait 3 seconds and then hit submit.

great but then I saw it will take 3 years for "new" content to go from HBO to Amazon.

previous seasons of shows.

no, the press release stated shows will have a 3 year lag time between airing and appearing on Amazon. Ie True Detective will be on Amazon in 3 years.

"The deal with Amazon to offer HBO titles on the Instant video streaming library has about a three-year lag time, too, so the HBO GO offering offers those hungry for more current content a way to stay up to date. Amazon also seems to be planning to integrate HBO GO into Fire TV’s unified voice search, so anything you have access to within will appear alongside Instant titles and stuff from other content providers on the platform. No firm date on its release has been announced yet, beyond the “target” of year’s end."


Game of Thrones will not be included

Not having the newer stuff sucks, but if people wanted to watch those shows that badly, they already have HBO or they're willing to buy the blu-rays/DVDs each year. This is big for people who have heard great things about all of these HBO shows but never wanted to get HBO through their provider. HBO needed to keep a little something for themselves in order to entice people to still watch the HBO channel. But they'll still have a ton of great shows on Amazon. All seasons of stuff like Sopranos, Deadwood, etc is awesome. Plus the mini series like Band of Brothers.

wonder how much Game of Thrones is worth as a franchise if they ever decide to really whore it out with tons of merch, movies etc. Seeing how much things like Star Wars/Star Trek are worth I imagine HBO sees it as the Golden Goose.

its very limited and only for old shows, or 3 years after premiering on new episodes.

Doesn't do anything for me. HBO Go via my Xbox still blows this away.

That would seem to make sense. Unless HBO planned to go out of business.

HBO has so many quality shows that go back many years now.

And really, how much TV can you watch?

Amazon prime is already cheaper at $79 to $99 a year, and that includes 2 day shipping of Amazon products. Amazon is about to release a slew of original TV series. Their TV offerings are already impressive. In my area ( SF Bay ) Amazon reception is far better than Netflix reception and now Netflix is raising their prices again.

The one area where Netflix may hold an edge is that on computers Netflix claims to be able to stream movies in High Def, although in my experience, I'm lucky to get standard def. Amazon, due to some licensing snafu can only stream high def movies to devices, not computers, but it does stream high def TV.

Another technological advantage of Amazon is that they give you a choice of Flash or Silverlight for streaming. Sometimes I've found that one is better than the other. Netflix only offers Silverlight.

In comment 11634344 Exit 172 said:

Quote:

HBO has so many quality shows that go back many years now. And really, how much TV can you watch?

Haha, scary question. Me, I watch an absurd amount of shows. I'd watch anything way before the 3 year mark, but i'm probably in the minority.

in content, functionality and video quality.

you have to pay extra to watch nearly everything. So it doesnt work out to cheaper than Netflix if you watch anything.

AP post their price increase. We have and use both, but still far more Netflix than AP. Some of that is habit. Netflix has the built in advantage of their lead and ability to make good recommendations. With their catalog size advantage, it's also just easier to select Netflix first, assuming they'll be more likely to have something. The Netflix Original series are also miles ahead of AP right now.

Plus, Trailer Park Boys.

and queue system needs to be revamped, but this is a real coup by Amazon.

I wonder what this means for HBO longterm. I was sort of hopeful that they'd come out with their own subscription service outside of cable, but that seems unlikely now with this deal.

In comment 11634434 Pork and Beans said:

Quote:

you have to pay extra to watch nearly everything. So it doesnt work out to cheaper than Netflix if you watch anything.

wait, what? I thought you paid the fee and got the shows/movies.

get away from the cable model which is not long for this world. Its three years now, but if they can get enough interest, why wouldn't they just put all their content and new shows on Amazon if Amazon pays more than cable co's in the future?

In comment 11634443 Rocky369 said:

Quote:

In comment 11634434 Pork and Beans said: Quote: you have to pay extra to watch nearly everything. So it doesnt work out to cheaper than Netflix if you watch anything. wait, what? I thought you paid the fee and got the shows/movies.

I have found there is very little worth watching for free on Amazon prime. I'm sure there are people who do, though.

Some shows and movies are only available outside AP. In which case, Amazon operates more like VuDu...pay as you go.

There's a good quantity of stuff available with AP, but they still lag behind Netflix. So with the price being about equal for existing customers, Netflix is still the better value right now.

as Netflix. They have a bunch of the same licensing deals. They also have some exclusive TV shows (seem to have some deals with CBS, FX, NBC and USA, IIRC), but they don't have as much as Netflix, for sure.

In comment 11634443 Rocky369 said:

Quote:

In comment 11634434 Pork and Beans said: Quote: you have to pay extra to watch nearly everything. So it doesnt work out to cheaper than Netflix if you watch anything. wait, what? I thought you paid the fee and got the shows/movies.

Amazon has two Video Services:

Amazon Instant Videos: A video rental/purchase service just like itunes. Pretty Much everything is available.

Amazon Prime Videos: A video subscription service like Netflix. Not all of the videos available in Amazon Instant are available in Amazon Prime. Just like Netflix, alot of the new movies are not available via this service. The difference with Amazon is that you still have the option to rent/buy the video if its not part of Prime. With netflix you don't even see the video as an option.

In comment 11634447 Pork and Beans said:

Quote:

get away from the cable model which is not long for this world. Its three years now, but if they can get enough interest, why wouldn't they just put all their content and new shows on Amazon if Amazon pays more than cable co's in the future?

HBO is owned by Time Warner Cable, who likely is going to hold onto the current model as long as they can - especially with Comcast looking to buy them up and turn them into a conglomerate of awful business practices and non-existent customer service.

Not only that, given that the market is basically established for online media distribution at $10 (+/- $2), they're going to need insane business to get what the costs would be to get the infrastructure needed to support it appropriately.

Also - the WWE just recently launched their own version of this. The reaction from some cable/satellite companies has been to no longer offer their PPVs. Its unlikely HBO would receive such backlash, but its highly likely they will no longer be heavily promoted and have providers swallow the cost of offering a free trial period of them (which typically has a huge success rate in turning trials into subscribers for HBO).

HBO is fully baked into the current cable model, unfortunately.

This is more about opening a new source of revenue for shows that are already in syndication to non-premium cable channels (Sopranos), monetizing shows that would otherwise be pirated by the group that will now stream it and potentially hook people on those series that are still running and have them cough up the subscription fee to HBO (or at the very least purchase a series at retail).

HBO Go as a standalone is likely not going to happen anytime soon, unfortunately.

Almost all cable shows are available to stream now. MLB is available now through google chromecast. Could be Aereo, could be NFL itself, but once sports are consistently available online, there is not much keeping people paying $80 month for a bunch of channels they don't want.

these classics?

Not even sure if it is available yet, but I was wondering if it includes VUDU in its search options.

I have built up a valuable collection of movies on VUDU, but there are some titles I've bought on Amazon because they aren't available on VUDU. I like the idea of having an integrated voice search - like the Roku's search that will check all sources.

Any ideas?

Time Warner Cable was spun-off from Time Warner and is a separate independent company. Time Warner owns HBO, not Time Warner Cable.

I'd love to dump DTV.

Although the HBOGo app isn't available for Fire, can't you simply use the web-browser to visit HBOs site and watch things like GoT that way?

I apologize in advance if this GIF causes any seizures:

In comment 11634523 Pork and Beans said:

Quote:

Almost all cable shows are available to stream now. MLB is available now through google chromecast. Could be Aereo, could be NFL itself, but once sports are consistently available online, there is not much keeping people paying $80 month for a bunch of channels they don't want.

The problem is, the cable system and the internet itself doesn't have the bandwidth to have everyone streaming everything. It will require an expensive upgrade of equipment and cables. That cost will get passed along. So your Internet bill escalate substantially.