HBO Max is finally available on Amazon Fire TV

CNN/Stylemagazine.com Newswire | 11/16/2020, 12:19 p.m.
It took a while, but HBO Max is finally available on Amazon Fire TV. The new streaming service will be …
HBO Max is finally available on Amazon Fire TV. Credit: Shutterstock

By Frank Pallotta, CNN Business

(CNN) -- It took a while, but HBO Max is finally available on Amazon Fire TV.

The new streaming service will be on Amazon Fire devices starting Tuesday, WarnerMedia announced Monday.

HBO Max is the focal point of WarnerMedia's entertainment empire, so adding Amazon Fire TV as a distributor is a big deal. Fire TV has more than 40 million monthly active users, which is more than Comcast's Xfinity service and puts it in the same range as streaming-device leader Roku. (WarnerMedia is also the parent company of CNN.)

HBO Max has notched 8.6 million activations since it launched in May, despite not being available on Amazon Fire TV and Roku devices.

Making a deal with Amazon Fire TV should help HBO Max reach more potential subscribers and allow it to compete with Netflix and Disney+, which dominate the streaming market and are both available on Amazon Fire TV and Roku.

Although WarnerMedia announced a deal with Amazon, it did not mention any impending deal with Roku. A WarnerMedia spokesperson said the company is continuing discussions with Roku.

Amazon and WarnerMedia have been in a stalemate since the launch of HBO Max over the summer, and it wasn't just about money. The two could not see eye to eye on how HBO Max would be distributed by Amazon and disagreed over who controlled user data.

Those disagreements appeared to be settled with the new deal on Monday, but WarnerMedia did not disclose the terms of its agreement with Amazon.

"This launch brings HBO Max into the living rooms of tens of millions of Amazon device customers," WarnerMedia said on Monday.

Tony Goncalves, head of sales and distribution for WarnerMedia, said in a statement that the company's "continued goal is to make HBO Max and its unparalleled content available to customers across all the devices they love."

"Fire TV is a favorite among customers, and we look forward to working with the Amazon team to engage and grow our existing subscriber base by showcasing all that HBO Max has to offer," he added.

HBO Max has an extensive content library that pulls programming from WarnerMedia's premium cable network, HBO, the company's nearly 100-year-old film and television studio, Warner Bros., as well as its cable channels, including TNT, TBS, and Turner Classic Movies.

An HBO Max subscription costs $14.99 a month, twice as much as Disney+ and $1 more than Netflix's standard plan, which costs $13.99 per month.