As disputes between Amazon and WarnerMedia over HBO Max continue, WarnerMedia CEO Jason Kilar is pressuring the tech giant to make a deal through the holidays.
In a long interview with Bloomberg, one of several Kilar did after a massive reorganization at WarnerMedia last week, Kilar spoke about Amazon’s business model. He claimed that the company’s problems with HBO Max seem to contradict Amazon’s principled beliefs. If Amazon “was really just focused on consumers,” and specifically bringing those with Fire devices, “HBO Max would be on Fire devices.”
“The consumer wants it,” Kilar said.
Kilar would not comment on reasons why the disputes have not yet been resolved – HBO Max came out at the end of April, and nothing has been set in stone yet – Kilar claimed that Amazon would have to put the streamer on their devices through the holidays. Customers who want HBO Max on their streaming devices will look for alternatives when it comes time to buy devices including Google Chromecast and Apple TV, where HBO Max is currently available. “If we go to the fourth quarter, if gift-giving happens, it will be a more material situation for a hardware vendor,” Kilar claimed.
The relationship between Amazon and WarnerMedia has become tenuous in recent months. As part of WarnerMedia’s mainline of its various streaming platforms, the company announced that it would launch its HBO Go app on August 1st. WarnerMedia also announced that their HBO Now app would simply become HBO. There were originally no plans for Amazon to carry HBO Now on Fire TV devices since August 1, but late last month WarnerMedia and Amazon reached an agreement allowing HBO Now customers to use the newly renamed HBO app. As part of the deal, Amazon also told customers that they “can continue to watch HBO content on Amazon devices with an HBO subscription through Prime Video Channels,” according to Variation.
It’s a mess. Kilar and his WarnerMedia team want nothing more than to have HBO Max on Fire TV devices and push people to the new streaming service. Amazon, as a major aggregator, also wants to offer HBO Max on its platform. The situation is a reverse cargo: aggregators like Amazon believe they have the upper hand because of their dominance in living rooms worldwide, but content providers like WarnerMedia believe that consumers will jump ship to other aggregator devices in the long run in search of their exclusive content. Hence the persistent stalemate.
So what are they really fighting over? Amazon (and Roku, the other unnamed player in this situation) want more control over how HBO Max is distributed. For example, WarnerMedia reports that HBO Max is being offered as a standalone app, as Disney Plus is currently on Fire TV devices. This gives WarnerMedia more ownership over a number of things, including user data. Amazon wants to report HBO Max as part of its Ecosystem Channels, allowing customers to subscribe to streaming apps through Amazon itself, which they can then stream on Fire TV. Finally, and most obviously, there are also agreements reported on the percentage of a cut Amazon (and Roku) would receive from subscriptions to HBO Max.
While WarnerMedia and Amazon continue their disputes, the people who suffer the most are consumers who just want to see Perry Mason as HBOs arrive Lovecraft Country on her Fire TV stick. We’ll see if Kilar’s interview tour this past weekend is busy enough to strike a deal.
