Amazon Prime customers in the US will soon be able to view the likes of The Sopranos, The Wire and the early seasons of Boardwalk Empire following a new licensing deal with HBO.
Previous seasons of other HBO shows, such as Girls, The Newsroom and Veep will become available over the course of the multi-year agreement, approximately three years after airing on HBO. However, there is no update on Game of Thrones making it into the deal.
The first wave of content will arrive on Prime Instant Video on May 21 and marks the first time that HBO programming has been licensed to an online-only subscription streaming service.
“HBO has produced some of the most groundbreaking, beloved and award-winning shows in television history, with more than 115 Emmys amongst the assortment of shows coming to Prime members next month,” said Brad Beale, director of content acquisition for Amazon.
“HBO original content is some of the most-popular across Amazon Instant Video – our customers love watching these shows. Now Prime members can enjoy a collection of great HBO shows on an unlimited basis, at no additional cost to their Prime membership.”
US Amazon Prime customers will also gain access to Parade’s End, Deadwood, Rome and Six Feet Under along with some of the HBO miniseries, including Band of Brothers and The Pacific.
“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,” said Charles Schreger, president of programming sales for HBO.
The move will be seen as a strike against rival Netflix which ended the first quarter of 2014 with 48 million members globally and recorded revenue of more than $1 billion.
UK Netflix membership has also shown strong growth over the past six months, up from 10% to 14%, according to Decipher’s latest MediaBug report – a contrast to Amazon Prime which dropped from 8% to 6% over the same period.
According to Decipher, loyalty to the Netflix scheme is also on the rise, with the proportion of subscribers committing to only a free trial reducing from 39% to 25% of total subscribers.
At the time of publication there was no response from Amazon regarding a similar HBO deal for UK customers where Sky currently holds the rights to most broadcasts.
