Amazon Prime and HBO Max are offering a combined service in France ahead of HBO Max’s standalone release in 2024.
French Amazon Prime viewers will be able to watch shows such as HBO’s upcoming The Last Of Us via their Amazon Prime service, likely throughout 2023 following the announcement of Warner Pass, a new channel that will launch on the Amazon Prime service.
The announcement comes in the wake of HBO failing to reach an agreement with Canal+, its usual broadcasting partner.
Here in the UK, HBO shows and Warner Bros movies release on Sky, an agreement that is set to run until sometime in 2025 with HBO Max likely to appear here by the end of that year.
The arrangement between Amazon Prime and HBO Max is a mutually beneficial one, but is of especial use to HBO as it continues to end distribution deals with domestic networks before rolling out its own streaming platform in those regions.
Although timelines may differ, the company may opt to follow the same route in the UK in 2025, using Amazon’s streaming platform as a ‘stopgap’ solution to offer audiences access to its library as it transitions from its long-standing agreements with Sky into then releasing its own streaming platform.
How the company intends to make up for being five years late to the streaming wars here in the UK remains to be seen, but if nothing else, HBO’s strategy in France may give us an indicator of what the next couple of years may look like for HBO here in the UK.
Screen Daily
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