HBO Max is Coming to Roku

After months of negotiations, AT&T and Roku today reached an agreement to bring HBO Max to the latter’s video streaming devices. It arrives tomorrow, Thursday, December 17.

“We believe that all entertainment will be streamed and we are thrilled to partner with HBO Max to bring their incredible library of iconic entertainment brands and blockbuster slate of direct to streaming theatrical releases to … Roku,” Roku senior vice president Scott Rosenberg said in a statement. “With more than 100 million [users and over 46 million accounts], Roku [is] the number one TV streaming platform in America.”

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Landing HBO Max on Roku is indeed a big deal and it effectively doubles the addressable market for the service, at least on video streaming devices. HBO Max has over 12 million subscribers, and with this deal, it is now on every major streaming endpoint, including Apple TV, iOS/iPad OS, Android, Chromecast, PC/Mac, PlayStation, Xbox, and Samsung smart TVs in addition to Fire TV and Roku.

This news comes one month after AT&T announced that HBO Max was coming to Amazon’s Fire TV devices, and one week before the blockbuster-to-be “Wonder Woman 1984” debuts on HBO Max alongside its theatrical debut. Next year, Warner Bros. will co-launch all of its major theatrical releases on HBO Max as well.

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Conversation 11 comments

  • untitled1

    16 December, 2020 - 8:54 pm

    <p>Still no app for LG TVs though. </p>

    • jbinaz

      18 December, 2020 - 2:26 pm

      <blockquote><em><a href="#600444">In reply to Untitled1:</a></em></blockquote><p>I have an LG TV (it's about 2.5 years old), and the wifi reception is so awful, I've never used it. The quality of streams was terrible. As soon as I plugged in a Roku (which is also wireless), it was perfectly fine. Until I realized it was the wireless connection, I thought I'd made a terrible choice in TVs.</p>

  • j5

    Premium Member
    16 December, 2020 - 9:13 pm

    <p>I think Amazon Fire and Roku are the best bet in making sure you have access to any of the streaming services. I bought a LG 65" LED in 2019 and it doesn't have all the streaming apps :(. That's why we just went with Amazon Fire sticks. We're already paying for Prime might as well jump on Amazon Fire too.</p>

  • j5

    Premium Member
    17 December, 2020 - 12:29 am

    <blockquote><em><a href="#600453">In reply to lvthunder:</a></em></blockquote><p>I have Amazon Firesticks, not Rokus. No coding skills needed.</p>

    • shark47

      17 December, 2020 - 7:52 am

      <blockquote><em><a href="#600464">In reply to j5:</a></em></blockquote><p>You still have to reach a deal with Apple for apps like HBO or Xbox Game Pass, which are subscription based.</p>

  • Stokkolm

    17 December, 2020 - 1:00 am

    <p>Finally</p>

  • mike2thel73

    17 December, 2020 - 5:12 am

    <p>Roku finally added bluetooth support to their decaying hardware pucks but when launched no hbo Max.</p><p><br></p><p>Twice this year since hbo max launched they were running promos for $11.99 a month for the first year….but I couldn't pull the trigger either time because I only owned roku's. (I refuse to make tablets a replacement for my TV)</p><p><br></p><p>I have since purchased a fire tv cube but the $11.99 promo has not resurfaced.</p><p><br></p><p>I'm getting it free via family.</p><p><br></p><p>I prefer roku's app centric approach to their home screen over amazon and google's jumbolaya concoction of apps, content, promos that go sideways; however,. I msged roku months ago that if they didn't secure hbo max by the beginning of october 2020 that I would be done with them…..2 1/2 months too late.</p><p><br></p><p>The reason for my hard deadline is because of prime day, black friday, and cyber Monday when you can get the amazon devices at their cheapest.</p><p><br></p><p>Also the newest roku no longer has micro SD and roku will not reveal the amount of storage that's in their latest ultra. Storage has been a huge problem for me on all roku devices that are not ultra or top of the line (roku 3)</p>

    • shark47

      17 December, 2020 - 8:11 am

      <blockquote><em><a href="#600478">In reply to Mike2thel73:</a></em></blockquote><p>Fire TV didn't have HBO Max back in October either. That said, I wonder how many subscribers Roku lost because of this delay. I had subscribed to HBO through Roku and it was extremely annoying. The iPad app automatically updated to the new HBO Max app when it launched, but it wouldn't let me stream anything and instead directed me to use the browser. I decided to cancel my HBO subscription and hold off until Roku was supported. That didn't last too long and when they had the $11.99 promo, i signed up for it by creating a new account (because my old HBO account was linked to my Roku subscription still). Overall, it was a mess and I 'm glad they've resolved things.</p><p><br></p><p><br></p>

      • jim_vernon

        Premium Member
        20 December, 2020 - 3:55 pm

        <blockquote><em><a href="#600491">In reply to shark47:</a></em></blockquote><p><br></p><p>What are you storing on a Roku?</p>

  • mike2thel73

    17 December, 2020 - 1:34 pm

    <blockquote><a href="#600453"><em>In reply to lvthunder:</em></a><em>.</em></blockquote><blockquote><br></blockquote><blockquote>You are right in that hbo max wasn't "officially" available to fire tv in the beginning BUT because android is the basis of all amazon fire devices I was able to sideload the hbo max android tv app and was using hbo max on fire tv even though the icon only showed "hbo" with a white background.</blockquote><blockquote><br></blockquote><blockquote>Peacock is also unofficially available to fire tv but I've sideloaded that months ago as well and I'm able to watch that too.</blockquote><blockquote><br></blockquote><blockquote>Since roku got rid of private channels a while ago, there is no way to enjoy services unless access is granted between content provider and roku with an official roku app.</blockquote><blockquote><br></blockquote><blockquote>Since roku created their self branded app and decided to join the ad monetizing business it has destroyed their biggest advantage of content neutrality.</blockquote><blockquote><br></blockquote><p><br></p>

  • jim_vernon

    Premium Member
    20 December, 2020 - 3:56 pm

    <p>In case anyone's confused, there was already an HBO app for Roku, but it was for the previous "HBO Now" service. It still works, but apparently it doesn't have the same content as HBO Max (even though the Now subscription has transitioned to Max).</p>

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