Updated 7/14/2020: WarnerMedia has corrected and clarified misinformation provided to Next TV by TiVo, which falsely implied that the HBO Max app has been disaggregated into TiVo's Stream app.
Like Comcast/NBCUniversal's Peacock app, which will launch on the open internet Wednesday, July 15, AT&T/WarnerMedia's HBO Max service is only obtainable on TiVo Stream 4K through a standalone app available through the Google Play Store.
TiVo Stream 4K is powered by Google's Android TV video operating system. TiVo, however, is trying to infiltrate the relatively mature connected TV device market dominated by Roku and Amazon by adding search and recommendation software to its Stream 4K device that unifies content across OTT services.
HBO Max content has not been disaggregated into that software, as our earlier report, based on TiVo misinformation, implied.
Original story continues here:
Released in early May and available through July directly from TiVo for a $50 introductory price, TiVo Stream 4K is attempting to disrupt the connected TV device market dominated by Roku and Amazon, using proprietary software that surfaces recommended content across OTT programming services.
Also read: TiVo Stream 4K: Everything You Need to Know About the New Android TV-Based Dongle
Currently, neither HBO Max or Peacock are available on Roku and Amazon Fire TV.
Those impasses are reported to center around app integration—the legacy HBO Now app has for several years been atomized within the respective Amazon Prime Video Channels and Roku Channels ecosystems. Roku and Fire TV users who subscribe to HBO have accessed the content through Roku and Amazon apps.
For HBO Max, WarnerMedia is said to be trying to extricate its app on the respective leading device platforms, and have users interface directly with HBO Max as they do Netflix, Hulu and Disney Plus. In other words, when you watch Disney Plus on an Amazon Fire TV-enabled box, dongle or streaming stick, it’s directly through the Disney Plus app.
More than one month after launch, HBO Max still doesn’t have support for Roku and Fire TV, two device ecosystems that control nearly two-thirds of connected TV usage in the U.S. HBO subscribers who use Roku and Amazon devices still must use the legacy HBO Now app (recently rebranded as simply “HBO”). And if they subscribe to HBO through the respective Amazon and Roku “channels” SVOD aggregation portals, HBO content is still disaggregated into those Roku and Amazon apps. But Roku and Amazon users don’t have access to the broader HBO Max experience, which now includes the vast array of WarnerMedia content and original series.
The question is often asked, how many subscribers is WarnerMedia missing out on by not being more ubiquitously available? But for Roku and Amazon, there’s an issue, perhaps overlooked, as to how many legacy HBO subscribers—who would not pay a dollar more to enjoy the expanded $15-a-month HBO Max experience—might switch over to a device like TiVo Stream 4K to access the new service.
