NEW YORK—A little more than a year after it left the Amazon Prime Channel service, Warner Bros. Discovery and Amazon today announced that HBO Max is once again available on Prime Video Channels in the U.S., allowing Amazon Prime subscribers to sign up for HBO Max’s $15/month streaming service.
Amazon Primes’ Channel provides a one-stop-shop for viewers to subscribe to premium viewing services and offering an easy way for HBO Max to attract new subscribers. At the time it left Amazon Prime Channels in September 2021, then-HBO Max Chief Andy Forssell told Bloomberg that WBD was willing to sacrifice the potential short term loss of 5 million subscribers in favor of cutting out the middleman, in this case, Amazon Prime, which it sees as one of its major competitors.
Although the HBO Max app remained available on Amazon’s Fire TV and the streamer did offer some incentives to attract customers at the time of its withdrawal, it was not enough to stem the tide of disappointing revenues and subscriber numbers that followed.
Even though it boasts some of television’s deepest and most awarded premium TV content, the service has not lived up to its full potential. In response to recent disappointing quarters, the company has announced that its combined HBO Max
Discovery + will be launched in the spring of 2023 as well as an ad-supported FAST service, which WBD said will also be available via Amazon Prime Channels.
Although WBD CEO David Zaslav—who replaced Kilar when Warner Bros. merged with Discovery earlier this year—has said he wants to focus more on its traditional linear service, the company says it wants to increase the availability of HBO Max in advance of next spring's launch as well as the ever-more important data that comes with it.
“Warner Bros. Discovery is committed to making HBO Max available to as broad an audience as possible while also advancing our data-driven approach to understanding our customers and best serving their viewing interests,” said WBD Chief Revenue and Strategy Officer Bruce Campbell.
