HBO shows to leave Amazon Prime Video streaming service in 2018
By Hector Cruz
HBO is pulling all of their shows from Amazon Prime in mid-2018, scrapping plans to add current series like “Game of Thrones” to the streaming series.
HBO has decided to pull its expansive on-demand library of shows that have aired on the network over the past few decades from Amazon Prime. The move won’t take effect until 2018, so customers will still have access to classic series like The Sopranos, The Wire and Six Feet Under via the video streaming service until then.
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According to Variety, the decision came as HBO has grown its subscriber base for HBO Now, its standalone digital service launched in 2015 that unlike HBO GO, does not require a cable or satellite subscription. That includes sales through Amazon Channels and DirectTV Now.
The company teamed with Amazon in 2014 to cut a three-year licensing deal for its entire catalog of older series. However, with the creation of HBO Now, Amazon Prime essentially became a competitor, and therefore, the deal no longer made sense for the parties involved.
The move means plans to add current series like Westworld, True Detective and Game of Thrones to Amazon Prime will no longer happen. Initially, the deal meant that seasons of the shows would be made available on the streaming service three years after they completed their entire run on HBO.
Here are just some of the network’s most popular and acclaimed series that are available with a Prime subscription (for now) on HBO:
- The Sopranos
- Band of Brothers
- The Pacific
- Mildred Pierce
- Veep
- True Blood
- Deadwood
- The Newsroom
- Sex and the City
- John Adams
- Boardwalk Empire
- The Wire
- Generation Kill
- Girls
- Eastbound & Down
- Curb Your Enthusiasm
- Rome
- Entourage
- Big Love
- Oz
- Six Feet Under
- Hung
- Flight of the Conchords
- Carnivale
- Enlightened
- In Treatment
- Lucky Louie
- Bored to Death
- Treme
- Mr. Show
- How to Make it in America
Amazon Prime subscribers still have about a year to binge watch the HBO shows before they’re removed from the video platform.