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HBO Max has over 900 more movies and TV shows than HBO does, but Roku and Amazon Fire TV users can't watch them

Jul 28, 2020, 01:34 IST
Business Insider
The "Lord of the Rings" trilogy is available on HBO Max, but not on HBO.Warner Bros.
  • WarnerMedia's HBO Max launched in May, but is still not available on Roku and Amazon Fire TV, the two largest streaming TV distribution platforms.
  • Subscribers using those platforms only have access to HBO content (currently through the HBO Now or HBO Go apps).
  • How big of a difference is there between the HBO Max and HBO catalogs?
  • The streaming search engine Reelgood provided Business Insider with exclusive data that show that HBO Max has has 754 more movies and 186 more TV shows than HBO.
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WarnerMedia's HBO Max launched in May with 10,000 hours of content, but not everyone can access it two months after its debut.

Max has yet to reach a deal with Roku and Amazon, the two largest streaming distribution platforms. They accounted for 70% of the combined market share as of July 2019, according to the market research firm Parks Associates.

The standoff means that millions of Roku or Amazon Fire TV users can only access content on HBO (currently through the HBO Now or HBO Go apps) rather than the hundreds of additional movies and TV shows that are available on HBO Max.

Reelgood, the streaming search engine, provided Business Insider exclusive data that show how many movies and TV shows Roku and Amazon customers are missing out on.

Reelgood

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As of July 22, HBO Max had 1,838 movies and 442 TV shows, while HBO had 1,084 movies and 256 TV shows, according to Reelgood. That means that Max has 754 more movies and 186 more TV shows than HBO (940 in total), all of which are unavailable to Roku and Amazon users.

Some of the highlights that are on Max but not on HBO include the "Lord of the Rings" trilogy and Adult Swim's "Rick and Morty." The hit sitcom "Friends" is also exclusively on Max. WarnerMedia snagged the "Friends" streaming rights last year from Netflix for $425 million ($85 million a year for five years), according to The Hollywood Reporter.

Why hasn't a deal been reached?

Variety reported that one sticking point is that Max and NBCUniversal's new streaming platform, Peacock — which also hasn't reached a deal with Roku or Amazon — want users to access the services directly through the apps rather than through the Roku Channel and Amazon Channels, so that the companies can gather user data.

AT&T said last week that Max and HBO had a combined 36.3 million subscribers in the US as of June 30. The company said that about 3 million new subscribers signed up directly to Max and that there were 4.1 million total activations of the Max app. That means that just over 1 million customers who were already paying for HBO through a cable or live TV provider have accessed Max. That's a tiny number given that Max is free with their HBO subscription and has all of HBO plus hundreds more movies and TV shows.

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It suggests that the lack of Roku and Amazon Fire TV support, or a lack of brand awareness for HBO Max, are hurting adoption.

Below are the top five movies on HBO Max that are not on HBO based on IMDb ratings, according to Reelgood:

  1. "The Lord of the Rings" trilogy (2001-2003)
  2. "Saving Private Ryan" (1997)
  3. "Spirited Away" (2001)
  4. "Seven Samurai" (1954)
  5. "Pather Panchali" (1955)

And here are the top five TV shows:

  1. "Rick and Morty" (2013-present)
  2. "Full Metal Alchemist: Brotherhood" (2009-2010)
  3. "Death Note" (2006-2007)
  4. "Friends" (1994-2004)
  5. "Hunter x Hunter" (2011-2014)
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