Amazon has signed a major deal with HBO, bringing some of the pay-cable network’s biggest shows to Amazon Prime Instant Video for Prime subscribers to stream. The deal comes as HBO Go will be added to the new Fire TV product.
The Internet retail giant announced that the deal includes The Sopranos, Six Feet Under, The Wire, Oz, Deadwood, Family Tree, Eastbound & Down and the first seasons of Boardwalk Empire and True Blood. Hit miniseries John Adams, Band of Brothers and others will also join the lineup.
Previous seasons of Girls, Veep, The Newsroom and other current HBO shows will be added soon. Made-for-TV movies like Game Change, comedy specials and documentaries will also be included in the first wave.
This is the first time that HBO has signed a streaming deal with a third party. HBO has been reluctant to allow streaming of its content outside of HBO Go and has not signed deals with Hulu, Netflix and others.
“HBO original content is some of the most-popular across Amazon Instant Video—our customers love watching these shows,” Brad Beale, Director of Content Acquisition for Amazon said in a statement. “Now Prime members can enjoy a collection of great HBO shows on an unlimited basis, at no additional cost to their Prime membership.”
The first wave of HBO shows will be up on Amazon Prime Instant Video on May 21. HBO Go will be available on Fire TV by the end of the year.
This is the first major acquisition news for Amazon since the price of a Prime subscription officially went up to $99 a year. Prime Student membership also went up to $49 a year.