It's been a long time coming, but HBO has finally inked a deal to let people watch shows like Boardwalk Empire and The Sopranos over the internet without an HBO cable TV subscription.
On Wednesday, Amazon announced an unprecedented licensing agreement to make older HBO series available on its Prime Instant Video service, a service that's free to those who pay a yearly fee for the online retailer's Prime two-day-shipping membership. That means all Prime members will get unlimited streaming access to HBO shows.
The deal is another milestone in television's gradual shift from a world where we had to watch most shows on a traditional TV set with a cable connection to one where a wide range of shows and movies are available across all sorts of devices via the internet. Netflix is at the forefront of this revolution, but Amazon is also pushing this change forward in big ways.
>The deal is another milestone in television's gradual shift from a world where you could only watch most shows on a traditional TV set with a cable connection to one where a wide range of shows and movies are available across all sorts of devices via the internet.
Amazon's pact with HBO is particularly important because the premium cable channel has been a symbol of the old media's battle to keep the likes of Netflix at bay. Now, HBO is finally acknowledging that cable TV subscriptions aren't as coveted as they used to be. As people can increasingly find the shows they want to watch online, without forking over hundreds of dollars for cable, they're cutting the cord.
But until now, if you wanted to watch old episodes of, say, Big Love online, the only place you could stream it legally (without paying to buy or rent it from Amazon or iTunes outright) was HBO Go, which requires a cable subscription (1). By separating HBO's programming from the cable bundle and licensing it to Amazon, HBO is giving the people what they want: quality television, whenever they want it, without spending a fortune.
But there's a caveat. HBO is only licensing its older content, reserving new shows for existing subscribers. Always wondered why people are so obsessed with The Wire? Here's your chance to find out. Want to talk to your colleagues tomorrow about who died on Game of Thrones this week? Sorry, for that, you've got to pay.
In a press release, HBO said it will begin releasing seasons of newer shows like Girls, Newsroom, and Veep during the course of this multi-year deal. Clearly, by slowly introducing the public to newer series, but reserving the latest episodes for subscribers, HBO hopes to get people hooked and convert them to paying customers. "Amazon has built a wonderful service—we are excited to have our programming made available to their vast customer base and believe the exposure will create new HBO subscribers," Charles Schreger, HBO's president of programming sales, said in a statement.
While it's clear that HBO isn't backing down on cable just yet, it's not hard to see how this Amazon deal could develop into even more robust distribution in the future. Which brings up another point: this licensing deal is a huge win for Amazon. Though Prime Instant has a massive and impressive catalog of content, it doesn't have anything close to Netflix's brand recognition. And as any new Netflix user knows, the first time you realize none of HBO's most famous shows are on the site, it can be pretty disappointing. HBO's cache is bound to make Prime a more formidable opponent in the battle against Netflix.
1. Correction 12:49 EST 04/23/14 An earlier version of this story neglected to mention that HBO programming has been available for purchase or rental on sites like Amazon and iTunes. This is the first time it's been available for unlimited consumption online through a service other than HBO Go.
