20 ms·

Amazon Snags Older HBO Shows For Web Streaming

163 points by timjahn 12y ago

bluedevil2k 12y ago
Wow, this is big surprising news I think. Not so much what it says about Amazon, more what it says about HBO. Seems to indicate strongly that they may never offer a straight stand-alone streaming app without a TV subscription.
- chmullig 12y ago
  I'm not sure I understand what you're suggesting. To me this says that HBO is becoming more like most other content providers.
- timjahn 12y ago
  I was thinking this is their first experiment into offering content outside their own platform. While the content isn't spectacular, it's at least a step in the right direction.
  - johnpowell 12y ago
    The content is actually spectacular. The Wire is one of the best shows ever made.
- gmjosack 12y ago
  You can already sign up for HBO Go with Comcast without having a TV plan. They'll bundle it with your internet plan.
  - pdovy 12y ago
    Is that something you had to call and ask for? Doesn't seem to be an option for me on their website through my existing account.
    - gmjosack 12y ago
      It was a plan on the website for me.
    - ForHackernews 12y ago
      They call it "Internet Plus", I believe they were only running it as a trial in certain markets: http://gizmodo.com/comcasts-hbo-internet-plan-is-the-one-youve-been-wa-1452189413 http://gizmodo.com/comcasts-hbo-internet-plan-is-the-one-you... You can try calling them and see if they'll give it to you.
lbsnake7 12y ago
This is basically a marketing move: HBO gets to keep their new programs so customers have to have HBO to see GOT and so forth (HBO gives up its back catalog but I doubt their old shows bring in new subscribers so that isn't a huge loss), Amazon justifies their Amazon Prime price increase and also gets people to buy Fire TV (Amazon Prime is probably not coming to any other device like Chromecast). I would say it's a huge win for Amazon and a so-so win for HBO, so likely Amazon is paying a hefty price to HBO for this ad campaign.
- whichdan 12y ago
  Amazon Prime works on most gaming systems and Roku, just not Chromecast and AppleTV.
  - ssharp 12y ago
    I don't think gaming systems and Roku as entries to streaming entertainment are great long-term, mass-market options. They are/were good for early adopters or the more tech-oriented. But for the larger markets, Chromecast, Apple TV, the new Amazon service, and smart TVs is where the market is evolving.
    - officemonkey 12y ago
      I think you're off base. Roku is a very mature product. Amazon might be able to beat it with marketing, but one could argue that Chromecast, Apple TV and Amazon have to catch up with Roku.
      - ssharp 12y ago
        You're absolutely right. Roku has been around longer and is more fully featured than many of its competitors, but that's not going to matter in the long-run. Google, Apple, and Amazon all have substantially more brand recognition and marketing power than Roku. Additionally, those three companies are also building upon their existing businesses to drive their TV devices and strategy. Smart TVs are also going to cut back on the number of people buying these types of devices. Roku is a fine option, but I don't see it being a big player a few years from now. I may be wrong, but I think they'll ultimately end up serving a niche market. I think home streaming is still in
tantalor 12y ago
> It’s the first time HBO has offered access to its catalog via a streaming video service that’s not its own HBO Go. Wrong, iTunes and Google already have the first three seasons of Game of Thrones. https://itunes.apple.com/us/tv-season/game-of-thrones-season-1/id482730236 https://itunes.apple.com/us/tv-season/game-of-thrones-season... https://play.google.com/store/tv/show/Game_of_Thrones?id=71Edzxe9gmo https://play.google.com/store/tv/show/Game_of_Thrones?id=71E...
- IanDrake 12y ago
  And so has Amazon Streaming, but you needed to purchase it. I guess what's new is that some stuff will be free to prime members.
- bretthoerner 12y ago
  That depends, the article mentions Amazon Prime which implies these episodes are free to watch after you have a subscription. If that's true it just means the author is confusing streaming and "cheap subscription services." iTunes is just like buying a DVD except on your computer, so that's not exactly "special."
- res0nat0r 12y ago
  They are talking about ala carte streaming, not pay per episode content.
  - dublinben 12y ago
    Isn't paying per episode the very epitome of a la carte pricing?
    - res0nat0r 12y ago
      I should have said all you can eat for a flat fee. There you go.
- smackfu 12y ago
  Yeah, "streaming video service" isn't the right term, since the places where you purchase videos also let you stream them, but I don't know what a better term is. Netflix calls themselves an "Internet television network" but that kind of makes me gag. Edit: Actually, the Amazon press release uses "online-only subscription streaming service", which does the job.
matznerd 12y ago
There is an amazing quote I read over a year ago on the Netflix vs HBO battle and it basically said that it's a race for Netflix to become like HBO before HBO can become like Netflix.
- Tyrannosaurs 12y ago
  That feels like it's based on what feel to me at least to be several flawed assumptions, primary among them that there can be only one.
  - matznerd 12y ago
    It's not about them being the only one, but it is about being the market leader. And with exclusive content, there actually "can be only one." I believe in a mature paid-streaming market, consumers will likely subscribe to multiple services, all for way cheaper than satellite or cable currently costs. I am going to edit my top level post and add the quote now that I am in front of a laptop.
    - Tyrannosaurs 12y ago
      "I believe in a mature paid-streaming market, consumers will likely subscribe to multiple services, all for way cheaper than satellite or cable currently costs." Agreed and that's kind of my point - HBO and Netflix can both win big here, it's not really about who can do both content and provision first. If you follow the exclusive content model there can be only one place to watch Game of Thrones or House of Cards but people can (and I think will) subscribe to many services. There may also be models where exclusivity isn't a given (as it isn't with music services) or that it will just be about content and that streaming will become a commodity, though they're harder to predict (and go against what has historically happened in TV).
  - dragonwriter 12y ago
    Well, there's more than one HBO-like service (e.g., Showtime, etc., exist) just as there is more than one Netflix-like service (plenty of subscription-based video streaming services exist), but that doesn't stop the fact that Netflix's streaming service is pretty much in the same position with regard to content producers as HBO was when it first ran into premium cable competition, and its route to sustainability in a market where it is no longer the sole player is pretty much exactly the same thing as HBO's was in the same situation -- stop being primarily a route to other people's content and instead become a premier content producer that also provides other people's content, so that you have (1) a compelling reason for consumers to choose you when other services exists, and (2) protection against content producers raising their rates so that all the profit from your business goes to them instead of you.
ashbrahma 12y ago
This explains why Amazon Prime now costs $20 more per year! ($99 vs $79)
gdulli 12y ago
On the one hand this reinforces that cordcutting will continue to be a second-class citizen in terms of first-run/same-season content, but on the other hand, making it easier for people to discover Six Feet Under is a great thing.
- Pxtl 12y ago
  > making it easier for people to discover Six Feet Under is a great thing. Well, the first few episodes at least. The show starts out awesome and gets progressively more depressing with no payoff episode after episode. By the end I was watching out of sheer stubbornness.
  - gdulli 12y ago
    Really? I just finished re-watching it and found the later seasons to be incredible. Better than the first two. Especially the climaxes of seasons 3, 4, 5. I definitely got more out of the second viewing, I had much more focus on character arcs than plot.
    - Pxtl 12y ago
      Different strokes, I suppose. There was a lot more black comedy near the beginning instead of just the grim realism of people making the same mistakes over and over again.
    - finnh 12y ago
      Totally agree. The series finale was one of the best series finale's I've seen.
- Touche 12y ago
  Just pirate it.
  - gamblor956 12y ago
    Don't be a tool. Just pay for it. It's been available on DVD for years now, is available on HBO Go, and is now available on Amazon for non-subscribers, and has already been available for non-subscribers on iTunes for years.
smackfu 12y ago
Well, that was a pretty effective move, since now it seems worth it to get a streaming device that does Amazon Prime, where yesterday I didn't care.
- DonGateley 12y ago
  Do your due diligence well. Amazon does an amazing job of obscuring what Instant Prime is available on leaving an easy impression that it is when it isn't. No Tivo, for example, but they make it all too easy to misunderstand that.
  - smackfu 12y ago
    Yeah, I have an Apple TV and a Tivo now, which are both fairly useless for Instant Prime.
brianstorms 12y ago
In my experience, Amazon does not care for high quality streaming. As a Prime member for a while, I gave their streaming a shot. Laughable. Might as well have been watching the video on a 56k USRobotics modem with a very high latency connection. Low resolution, fuzzy picture, stops and starts. I simply do not trust Amazon to do it right.
- eogas 12y ago
  Not to mention HDCP. The first time I tried out Prime streaming, I turned off my second monitor after starting up the video, and Amazon took that to mean that I was a criminal, and that my video should be stopped. I groaned and fired up Netflix.
- hatred 12y ago
  May be we both live in a different world of sorts. Are there others like you who seem to be facing issues with instant video recently because for me it works quite well. Also , how long back did you try it ?
  - dublinben 12y ago
    No matter where you are, Amazon won't stream high quality (or even HD) streams to a PC. Their streaming quality is quite poor compared to their competitors.
    - gamblor956 12y ago
      Don't spread FUD. I get 1080p streams on my PC when I rent or purchase videos through Amazon VOD or watch the free ones through Prime. If your PC isn't getting HD (but for some reason your other devices are), the problem is probably your computer or its network connection.
      - dublinben 12y ago
        "HD playback is not available on all devices. For example, some Roku and TiVo devices don't support HD content. The Kindle Fire HD is HD compatible, along with Windows computers that meet the content protection (HDCP) requirements." My computer is perfectly capable of playing 1080p content (I do it all the time) they just choose not to provide it to me on my non-HDCP monitor. That's clearly their problem, not mine.
chiph 12y ago
The money is in the back catalog, as Ted Turner showed when he kept the MGM film library and sold the rest of the company.
biafra 12y ago
As a German customer is it possible to get any movie or show on amazon prime in English?
- linohh 12y ago
  Some are available. Just search for OV or OmU in the catalog. It's a pain in the ass finding them, though.
  - TillE 12y ago
    The selection is terrible - a few BBC series and some weird films. It's really annoying, because Amazon.de has quite a lot of great TV series and films, all dubbed in German, usually quite poorly. I honestly don't understand how German audiences tolerate it. 90% of the time, it really just sounds like a bunch of actors sitting in a studio, reading lines melodramatically. I seem to remember the LOTR dubs were well done, though. In contrast, I saw the first episode of Game of Thrones at a friend's house and it was godawful. Completely lost the nuance of every performance. Anyway, other streaming services (Maxdome, Watchever) will give you the original audio track, but their selection is also rather limited.
    - omnibrain 12y ago
      And neither Amazon nor Watchever offer subtitles.
SloopJon 12y ago
As Amazon Prime's catalog has improved, I've bought fewer videos in the last few years, even as prices have plummeted. (Whole series are selling now for what a single season used to cost!) Good news for my closet space, but to the collector in me it seems so ephemeral. When the copyright on The Sopranos lapses a few hundred years from now, my DVDs and Blu-rays will be in the public domain. Meanwhile, Amazon could lose its license before I get halfway through season three.
- JTon 12y ago
  Agreed. What's your moral stance on buying a show from iTunes/Amazon and then torrenting a copy for safe keeping?
caractacus 12y ago
But only in the US, it seems. So far, while the UK might have (a poorer selection of) Prime Instant Video, it doesn't have the FireTV and won't be getting the HBO shows. Maybe they'll launch at the same time?
samelliot 12y ago
Exclusive deals don't solve piracy, we're just jumping from one platform to the next.
- ds9 12y ago
  Agreed. It's very positive that the distribution channels are opening up such that more companies are distributing shows like this -- yet as a casual viewer, it's hardly worthwhile for me to subscribe to Amazon Prime and buy some specialized proprietary device, just for one network's older shows. And presumably there will be other vendors offering other narrow selections, only on their own or "partner company" devices or DRM-ware. This sort of thing makes sense if you already have the device or service, otherwise it just prices the video files beyond any reasonable market value. And piracy will continue as long as this "jump thru hoops" mentality goes on: compared to the hassle-laden commercial experience, pirating is convenient, and files are high quality, free from junk, and play on VLC. The copyright holding companies will probably die off before they realize that they could have done better just selling files. They're convinced that only a few would buy and they would put them on torrents - but if I paid a dollar an episode of a series, with no DRM, trailers, ads or other BS, I wouldn't bother sharing, I'd just refer people to the same source to buy their own copies.
- jlillyreed 12y ago
  Until everything is given out for free with no ads, there will always be piracy. However, that would mean that there would be no way to pay for the content, so there's always a balance that needs to be struck.
jobu 12y ago
"In addition, HBO GO will become available on Fire TV, targeting a launch by year-end." Looks like this deal also adds the last missing checkmark to the Fire TV comparison chart: http://www.amazon.com/Fire-TV-streaming-media-player/dp/B00CX5P8FC#compare http://www.amazon.com/Fire-TV-streaming-media-player/dp/B00C...
- Touche 12y ago
  There are definitely others, MLB.tv for example. Of course they pick the list to look good for their device.
  - jordan0day 12y ago
    Live sports (baseball and basketball, specifically) may be one of the last remaining things keeping many Americans from "cutting the cable". I think the first streaming service to be able to offer a significant amount of these will have a clear competitive advantage.
    - timjahn 12y ago
      You're spot on. Sports are the single thing that there really is no easy way to watch without traditional cable/satellite. Once they finally come around, it will be much easier to convince people to cut the cord.
      - Touche 12y ago
        MLB, NBA, and NHL all have streaming service for live games. They are still subject to blackouts though, which is crazy.
        EpicEng 12y ago
        But the NFL, the big kahuna, does not. It really stinks; I'm going to have to figure something out come fall as I cut the cord a few months back.
leccine 12y ago
Amazon Fire TV is just the perfect platform. Now with old and new HBO series you can literary watch anything you want, including good foreign movies, Hollywood crap. Not to mention the gaming capabilities of the device.
Malarkey73 12y ago
I'd really like to watch Oz. Coming from the UK that was the first show I watched where I thought "There's some good American TV, What is this HBO thing?"
pvnick 12y ago
This is great for Amazon. Looks like they're attempting to be the primary outlet for premium big-name content producers, while Netflix is trying to be the primary outlet for their own content, which has the HBOs and Showtimes shying away from doing business with them. Both Netflix's and Amazon's are viable strategies, and it'll be interesting to see which pan's out. On the other hand, piracy has gotten way easier. The technology is already here for the more tech savvy to instantly stream (or at least quickly download) The Wire and Game of Thrones, bypassing Amazon, as well as Arrested Development and Orange is the New Black, bypassing Netflix. Netflix and Amazon aren't just competing with each other, they're competing with illegal p2p technology. And in the case of Netflix, throw in traditional premium content producers as well. Reed Hastings currently has great hair, I expect that'll start turning grey real fast.
- mbrutsch 12y ago
  > they're competing with illegal p2p technology. The technology isn't "illegal", but some uses for it are. Big difference.
- gdilla 12y ago
  Netflix's evolution is more a reaction to HBO and Showtimes reluctance to work with them.
  - jonny_eh 12y ago
    Yup, parent is confusing cause and effect.
  - georgemcbay 12y ago
    Would upvote 100 times if I could. I briefly worked for a movie/tv streaming service whose CEO was a movie industry exec. (I worked there almost accidentally as fallout from a previously company failing and that streaming company basically taking on all of the previous company's employees as a team). One of the big take-aways from that brief stint was realizing how much the management at traditional "content" companies hate Netflix... like seething, psychopathic hate. In their minds they are on a mission to destroy Netflix at all costs because of how Netflix's all-in-one pricing model "devalues" their content.
pdubs 12y ago
Too bad there's no first-party app for hardware-accelerated 1080p/DD5.1 streaming on Windows like there is for Netflix and Hulu...
markbnj 12y ago
So what was it about the Amazon deal that made HBO say yes when they've been telling Hastings to gfh for years now?
- Raphael 12y ago
  Yes, I'm surprised Amazon could pay HBO enough. My assumption was that Netflix couldn't afford HBO content, but that apparently wasn't true, as Amazon doesn't charge more than Netflix and has hefty delivery costs.
netcan 12y ago
I don't know what to think about TV. On one hand, there's a lot of progress happening. Streaming, on-demand and pay-per-view/download are really getting bigger and more prominent every year. HDboxes, are getting better too and achieving a lot of the same things (watch anything anytime). The artform itself is improving. Game of Thrones or Breaking bad are better that any show could be in the stand alone episode paradigm of Star Trek. They are using the 10+ hrs hours of sequential viewing to do some serious plot & character development. Walter White wasn't possible before serials. On the other hand, it's all such a kludge.The whole thing is built around creating and maintaining an artificial scarcity modeled on the slightly less artificial scarcity of a few years ago. We pretend that we're paying Amazon or Netflix's for a cable or pretending that we're paying Apple for a video cassette. Don't get me started on loaning. I'm not claiming that copyright could go away and still have Game Of Thrones. This isn't that kind of statement. But… it's just such a kludge. Something this brittle and ugly can't be the right way to do anything.
- jonny_eh 12y ago
  I don't follow. How is paying Netflix a kludge? They're providing a fantastic service in addition to some great new content. If Amazon, Hulu, et al step up their game then we're all the better for it.
  - panzagl 12y ago
    Netflix on its own isn't a kludge, but paying netflix, plus maybe Hulu, and oh, there's stuff from Amazon as a side effect of 2 day shipping, plus buying individual episodes from Amazon, iTunes, or Google, and don't forget the old Ultraviolets, right, right? Add in some ripped media and possibly a wire or antenna hooked to a dvr and that's what's a kludge.
- chaostheory 12y ago
  What's the point you're trying to make? That you can't buy episodes of shows like Breaking Bad or Game of Thrones separate from cable, they're too expensive, or that Netflix and its kin aren't good enough?
atacrawl 12y ago
I was actually hoping this meant shows like The Larry Sanders Show and Dream On had found a home online. Darn.
arjn 12y ago
This is a very big deal for me. I've had Netflix, Amazon and Hulu streaming via my Roku for over 2 years now but no HBO. I use comcast for internet but no TV so the Roku HBO app would not work.

163 points by timjahn 12y ago

Wow, this is big surprising news I think. Not so much what it says about Amazon, more what it says about HBO. Seems to indicate strongly that they may never offer a straight stand-alone streaming app without a TV subscription.

chmullig 12y ago
I'm not sure I understand what you're suggesting. To me this says that HBO is becoming more like most other content providers.
timjahn 12y ago
I was thinking this is their first experiment into offering content outside their own platform. While the content isn't spectacular, it's at least a step in the right direction.
- johnpowell 12y ago
  The content is actually spectacular. The Wire is one of the best shows ever made.
gmjosack 12y ago
You can already sign up for HBO Go with Comcast without having a TV plan. They'll bundle it with your internet plan.
- pdovy 12y ago
  Is that something you had to call and ask for? Doesn't seem to be an option for me on their website through my existing account.
  - gmjosack 12y ago
    It was a plan on the website for me.
  - ForHackernews 12y ago
    They call it "Internet Plus", I believe they were only running it as a trial in certain markets: http://gizmodo.com/comcasts-hbo-internet-plan-is-the-one-youve-been-wa-1452189413 http://gizmodo.com/comcasts-hbo-internet-plan-is-the-one-you... You can try calling them and see if they'll give it to you.

lbsnake7 12y ago

This is basically a marketing move: HBO gets to keep their new programs so customers have to have HBO to see GOT and so forth (HBO gives up its back catalog but I doubt their old shows bring in new subscribers so that isn't a huge loss), Amazon justifies their Amazon Prime price increase and also gets people to buy Fire TV (Amazon Prime is probably not coming to any other device like Chromecast). I would say it's a huge win for Amazon and a so-so win for HBO, so likely Amazon is paying a hefty price to HBO for this ad campaign.

whichdan 12y ago
Amazon Prime works on most gaming systems and Roku, just not Chromecast and AppleTV.
- ssharp 12y ago
  I don't think gaming systems and Roku as entries to streaming entertainment are great long-term, mass-market options. They are/were good for early adopters or the more tech-oriented. But for the larger markets, Chromecast, Apple TV, the new Amazon service, and smart TVs is where the market is evolving.
  - officemonkey 12y ago
    I think you're off base. Roku is a very mature product. Amazon might be able to beat it with marketing, but one could argue that Chromecast, Apple TV and Amazon have to catch up with Roku.
    - ssharp 12y ago
      You're absolutely right. Roku has been around longer and is more fully featured than many of its competitors, but that's not going to matter in the long-run. Google, Apple, and Amazon all have substantially more brand recognition and marketing power than Roku. Additionally, those three companies are also building upon their existing businesses to drive their TV devices and strategy. Smart TVs are also going to cut back on the number of people buying these types of devices. Roku is a fine option, but I don't see it being a big player a few years from now. I may be wrong, but I think they'll ultimately end up serving a niche market. I think home streaming is still in

tantalor 12y ago

> It’s the first time HBO has offered access to its catalog via a streaming video service that’s not its own HBO Go. Wrong, iTunes and Google already have the first three seasons of Game of Thrones. https://itunes.apple.com/us/tv-season/game-of-thrones-season-1/id482730236 https://itunes.apple.com/us/tv-season/game-of-thrones-season... https://play.google.com/store/tv/show/Game_of_Thrones?id=71Edzxe9gmo https://play.google.com/store/tv/show/Game_of_Thrones?id=71E...

IanDrake 12y ago
And so has Amazon Streaming, but you needed to purchase it. I guess what's new is that some stuff will be free to prime members.
bretthoerner 12y ago
That depends, the article mentions Amazon Prime which implies these episodes are free to watch after you have a subscription. If that's true it just means the author is confusing streaming and "cheap subscription services." iTunes is just like buying a DVD except on your computer, so that's not exactly "special."
res0nat0r 12y ago
They are talking about ala carte streaming, not pay per episode content.
- dublinben 12y ago
  Isn't paying per episode the very epitome of a la carte pricing?
  - res0nat0r 12y ago
    I should have said all you can eat for a flat fee. There you go.
smackfu 12y ago
Yeah, "streaming video service" isn't the right term, since the places where you purchase videos also let you stream them, but I don't know what a better term is. Netflix calls themselves an "Internet television network" but that kind of makes me gag. Edit: Actually, the Amazon press release uses "online-only subscription streaming service", which does the job.

matznerd 12y ago

There is an amazing quote I read over a year ago on the Netflix vs HBO battle and it basically said that it's a race for Netflix to become like HBO before HBO can become like Netflix.

Tyrannosaurs 12y ago
That feels like it's based on what feel to me at least to be several flawed assumptions, primary among them that there can be only one.
- matznerd 12y ago
  It's not about them being the only one, but it is about being the market leader. And with exclusive content, there actually "can be only one." I believe in a mature paid-streaming market, consumers will likely subscribe to multiple services, all for way cheaper than satellite or cable currently costs. I am going to edit my top level post and add the quote now that I am in front of a laptop.
  - Tyrannosaurs 12y ago
    "I believe in a mature paid-streaming market, consumers will likely subscribe to multiple services, all for way cheaper than satellite or cable currently costs." Agreed and that's kind of my point - HBO and Netflix can both win big here, it's not really about who can do both content and provision first. If you follow the exclusive content model there can be only one place to watch Game of Thrones or House of Cards but people can (and I think will) subscribe to many services. There may also be models where exclusivity isn't a given (as it isn't with music services) or that it will just be about content and that streaming will become a commodity, though they're harder to predict (and go against what has historically happened in TV).
- dragonwriter 12y ago
  Well, there's more than one HBO-like service (e.g., Showtime, etc., exist) just as there is more than one Netflix-like service (plenty of subscription-based video streaming services exist), but that doesn't stop the fact that Netflix's streaming service is pretty much in the same position with regard to content producers as HBO was when it first ran into premium cable competition, and its route to sustainability in a market where it is no longer the sole player is pretty much exactly the same thing as HBO's was in the same situation -- stop being primarily a route to other people's content and instead become a premier content producer that also provides other people's content, so that you have (1) a compelling reason for consumers to choose you when other services exists, and (2) protection against content producers raising their rates so that all the profit from your business goes to them instead of you.

ashbrahma 12y ago

This explains why Amazon Prime now costs $20 more per year! ($99 vs $79)

gdulli 12y ago

On the one hand this reinforces that cordcutting will continue to be a second-class citizen in terms of first-run/same-season content, but on the other hand, making it easier for people to discover Six Feet Under is a great thing.

Pxtl 12y ago
> making it easier for people to discover Six Feet Under is a great thing. Well, the first few episodes at least. The show starts out awesome and gets progressively more depressing with no payoff episode after episode. By the end I was watching out of sheer stubbornness.
- gdulli 12y ago
  Really? I just finished re-watching it and found the later seasons to be incredible. Better than the first two. Especially the climaxes of seasons 3, 4, 5. I definitely got more out of the second viewing, I had much more focus on character arcs than plot.
  - Pxtl 12y ago
    Different strokes, I suppose. There was a lot more black comedy near the beginning instead of just the grim realism of people making the same mistakes over and over again.
  - finnh 12y ago
    Totally agree. The series finale was one of the best series finale's I've seen.
Touche 12y ago
Just pirate it.
- gamblor956 12y ago
  Don't be a tool. Just pay for it. It's been available on DVD for years now, is available on HBO Go, and is now available on Amazon for non-subscribers, and has already been available for non-subscribers on iTunes for years.

smackfu 12y ago

Well, that was a pretty effective move, since now it seems worth it to get a streaming device that does Amazon Prime, where yesterday I didn't care.

DonGateley 12y ago
Do your due diligence well. Amazon does an amazing job of obscuring what Instant Prime is available on leaving an easy impression that it is when it isn't. No Tivo, for example, but they make it all too easy to misunderstand that.
- smackfu 12y ago
  Yeah, I have an Apple TV and a Tivo now, which are both fairly useless for Instant Prime.

brianstorms 12y ago

In my experience, Amazon does not care for high quality streaming. As a Prime member for a while, I gave their streaming a shot. Laughable. Might as well have been watching the video on a 56k USRobotics modem with a very high latency connection. Low resolution, fuzzy picture, stops and starts. I simply do not trust Amazon to do it right.

eogas 12y ago
Not to mention HDCP. The first time I tried out Prime streaming, I turned off my second monitor after starting up the video, and Amazon took that to mean that I was a criminal, and that my video should be stopped. I groaned and fired up Netflix.
hatred 12y ago
May be we both live in a different world of sorts. Are there others like you who seem to be facing issues with instant video recently because for me it works quite well. Also , how long back did you try it ?
- dublinben 12y ago
  No matter where you are, Amazon won't stream high quality (or even HD) streams to a PC. Their streaming quality is quite poor compared to their competitors.
  - gamblor956 12y ago
    Don't spread FUD. I get 1080p streams on my PC when I rent or purchase videos through Amazon VOD or watch the free ones through Prime. If your PC isn't getting HD (but for some reason your other devices are), the problem is probably your computer or its network connection.
    - dublinben 12y ago
      "HD playback is not available on all devices. For example, some Roku and TiVo devices don't support HD content. The Kindle Fire HD is HD compatible, along with Windows computers that meet the content protection (HDCP) requirements." My computer is perfectly capable of playing 1080p content (I do it all the time) they just choose not to provide it to me on my non-HDCP monitor. That's clearly their problem, not mine.

chiph 12y ago

The money is in the back catalog, as Ted Turner showed when he kept the MGM film library and sold the rest of the company.

biafra 12y ago

As a German customer is it possible to get any movie or show on amazon prime in English?

linohh 12y ago
Some are available. Just search for OV or OmU in the catalog. It's a pain in the ass finding them, though.
- TillE 12y ago
  The selection is terrible - a few BBC series and some weird films. It's really annoying, because Amazon.de has quite a lot of great TV series and films, all dubbed in German, usually quite poorly. I honestly don't understand how German audiences tolerate it. 90% of the time, it really just sounds like a bunch of actors sitting in a studio, reading lines melodramatically. I seem to remember the LOTR dubs were well done, though. In contrast, I saw the first episode of Game of Thrones at a friend's house and it was godawful. Completely lost the nuance of every performance. Anyway, other streaming services (Maxdome, Watchever) will give you the original audio track, but their selection is also rather limited.
  - omnibrain 12y ago
    And neither Amazon nor Watchever offer subtitles.

SloopJon 12y ago

As Amazon Prime's catalog has improved, I've bought fewer videos in the last few years, even as prices have plummeted. (Whole series are selling now for what a single season used to cost!) Good news for my closet space, but to the collector in me it seems so ephemeral. When the copyright on The Sopranos lapses a few hundred years from now, my DVDs and Blu-rays will be in the public domain. Meanwhile, Amazon could lose its license before I get halfway through season three.

JTon 12y ago
Agreed. What's your moral stance on buying a show from iTunes/Amazon and then torrenting a copy for safe keeping?

caractacus 12y ago

But only in the US, it seems. So far, while the UK might have (a poorer selection of) Prime Instant Video, it doesn't have the FireTV and won't be getting the HBO shows. Maybe they'll launch at the same time?

samelliot 12y ago

Exclusive deals don't solve piracy, we're just jumping from one platform to the next.

ds9 12y ago
Agreed. It's very positive that the distribution channels are opening up such that more companies are distributing shows like this -- yet as a casual viewer, it's hardly worthwhile for me to subscribe to Amazon Prime and buy some specialized proprietary device, just for one network's older shows. And presumably there will be other vendors offering other narrow selections, only on their own or "partner company" devices or DRM-ware. This sort of thing makes sense if you already have the device or service, otherwise it just prices the video files beyond any reasonable market value. And piracy will continue as long as this "jump thru hoops" mentality goes on: compared to the hassle-laden commercial experience, pirating is convenient, and files are high quality, free from junk, and play on VLC. The copyright holding companies will probably die off before they realize that they could have done better just selling files. They're convinced that only a few would buy and they would put them on torrents - but if I paid a dollar an episode of a series, with no DRM, trailers, ads or other BS, I wouldn't bother sharing, I'd just refer people to the same source to buy their own copies.
jlillyreed 12y ago
Until everything is given out for free with no ads, there will always be piracy. However, that would mean that there would be no way to pay for the content, so there's always a balance that needs to be struck.

jobu 12y ago

"In addition, HBO GO will become available on Fire TV, targeting a launch by year-end." Looks like this deal also adds the last missing checkmark to the Fire TV comparison chart: http://www.amazon.com/Fire-TV-streaming-media-player/dp/B00CX5P8FC#compare http://www.amazon.com/Fire-TV-streaming-media-player/dp/B00C...

Touche 12y ago
There are definitely others, MLB.tv for example. Of course they pick the list to look good for their device.
- jordan0day 12y ago
  Live sports (baseball and basketball, specifically) may be one of the last remaining things keeping many Americans from "cutting the cable". I think the first streaming service to be able to offer a significant amount of these will have a clear competitive advantage.
  - timjahn 12y ago
    You're spot on. Sports are the single thing that there really is no easy way to watch without traditional cable/satellite. Once they finally come around, it will be much easier to convince people to cut the cord.
    - Touche 12y ago
      MLB, NBA, and NHL all have streaming service for live games. They are still subject to blackouts though, which is crazy.
      - EpicEng 12y ago
        But the NFL, the big kahuna, does not. It really stinks; I'm going to have to figure something out come fall as I cut the cord a few months back.

leccine 12y ago

Amazon Fire TV is just the perfect platform. Now with old and new HBO series you can literary watch anything you want, including good foreign movies, Hollywood crap. Not to mention the gaming capabilities of the device.

Malarkey73 12y ago

I'd really like to watch Oz. Coming from the UK that was the first show I watched where I thought "There's some good American TV, What is this HBO thing?"

pvnick 12y ago

This is great for Amazon. Looks like they're attempting to be the primary outlet for premium big-name content producers, while Netflix is trying to be the primary outlet for their own content, which has the HBOs and Showtimes shying away from doing business with them. Both Netflix's and Amazon's are viable strategies, and it'll be interesting to see which pan's out. On the other hand, piracy has gotten way easier. The technology is already here for the more tech savvy to instantly stream (or at least quickly download) The Wire and Game of Thrones, bypassing Amazon, as well as Arrested Development and Orange is the New Black, bypassing Netflix. Netflix and Amazon aren't just competing with each other, they're competing with illegal p2p technology. And in the case of Netflix, throw in traditional premium content producers as well. Reed Hastings currently has great hair, I expect that'll start turning grey real fast.

mbrutsch 12y ago
> they're competing with illegal p2p technology. The technology isn't "illegal", but some uses for it are. Big difference.
gdilla 12y ago
Netflix's evolution is more a reaction to HBO and Showtimes reluctance to work with them.
- jonny_eh 12y ago
  Yup, parent is confusing cause and effect.
- georgemcbay 12y ago
  Would upvote 100 times if I could. I briefly worked for a movie/tv streaming service whose CEO was a movie industry exec. (I worked there almost accidentally as fallout from a previously company failing and that streaming company basically taking on all of the previous company's employees as a team). One of the big take-aways from that brief stint was realizing how much the management at traditional "content" companies hate Netflix... like seething, psychopathic hate. In their minds they are on a mission to destroy Netflix at all costs because of how Netflix's all-in-one pricing model "devalues" their content.

pdubs 12y ago

Too bad there's no first-party app for hardware-accelerated 1080p/DD5.1 streaming on Windows like there is for Netflix and Hulu...

markbnj 12y ago

So what was it about the Amazon deal that made HBO say yes when they've been telling Hastings to gfh for years now?

Raphael 12y ago
Yes, I'm surprised Amazon could pay HBO enough. My assumption was that Netflix couldn't afford HBO content, but that apparently wasn't true, as Amazon doesn't charge more than Netflix and has hefty delivery costs.

netcan 12y ago

I don't know what to think about TV. On one hand, there's a lot of progress happening. Streaming, on-demand and pay-per-view/download are really getting bigger and more prominent every year. HDboxes, are getting better too and achieving a lot of the same things (watch anything anytime). The artform itself is improving. Game of Thrones or Breaking bad are better that any show could be in the stand alone episode paradigm of Star Trek. They are using the 10+ hrs hours of sequential viewing to do some serious plot & character development. Walter White wasn't possible before serials. On the other hand, it's all such a kludge.The whole thing is built around creating and maintaining an artificial scarcity modeled on the slightly less artificial scarcity of a few years ago. We pretend that we're paying Amazon or Netflix's for a cable or pretending that we're paying Apple for a video cassette. Don't get me started on loaning. I'm not claiming that copyright could go away and still have Game Of Thrones. This isn't that kind of statement. But… it's just such a kludge. Something this brittle and ugly can't be the right way to do anything.

jonny_eh 12y ago
I don't follow. How is paying Netflix a kludge? They're providing a fantastic service in addition to some great new content. If Amazon, Hulu, et al step up their game then we're all the better for it.
- panzagl 12y ago
  Netflix on its own isn't a kludge, but paying netflix, plus maybe Hulu, and oh, there's stuff from Amazon as a side effect of 2 day shipping, plus buying individual episodes from Amazon, iTunes, or Google, and don't forget the old Ultraviolets, right, right? Add in some ripped media and possibly a wire or antenna hooked to a dvr and that's what's a kludge.
chaostheory 12y ago
What's the point you're trying to make? That you can't buy episodes of shows like Breaking Bad or Game of Thrones separate from cable, they're too expensive, or that Netflix and its kin aren't good enough?

atacrawl 12y ago

I was actually hoping this meant shows like The Larry Sanders Show and Dream On had found a home online. Darn.

arjn 12y ago

This is a very big deal for me. I've had Netflix, Amazon and Hulu streaming via my Roku for over 2 years now but no HBO. I use comcast for internet but no TV so the Roku HBO app would not work.