HBO Max Is Somehow Still In A Stalemate With Roku
By Hoai-Tran Bui/Dec. 7, 2020 1:00 pm EST
Despite the gauntlet that HBO Max laid down with the Warner Bros. 2021 slate, Roku is not budging on the issue of HBO Max launching as its own standalone app. Variety reports:
Sources confirm to Variety that WarnerMedia and Roku are in active talks. But both sides have signaled that they are unwilling to budge on their positions: Roku wants to keep HBO/HBO Max as a channel it can sell directly to its own customers, while WarnerMedia is insisting that HBO Max be available as a standalone app. The companies are also hashing out the terms for how they will divvy up ad inventory for the ad-subsidized version of HBO Max, which WarnerMedia plans to launch for a reduced price later in 2021.
So, it becomes a countdown to Christmas, with Wonder Woman 1984 set to become the hottest title debut on HBO Max on Christmas Day. Warner also sees the holiday season as a boon to its case against Roku too, with people more apt to buy new streaming devices, and not subscriptions, as gifts. But Roku appears to be pretty confident that its large user base — which is at an estimated 52 million user accounts — is enough of a draw for HBO Max to bend in this stalemate:
And Roku, boosted by the COVID pandemic, has seen significant momentum. The company will close out 2020 with an estimated 52 million user accounts — with have a footprint representing around 40% of all U.S. broadband households, according to Rosenblatt Securities.
As a result, HBO Max’s annual average subscriber base would need to be 8.4 million higher than its current pace of additions for WarnerMedia to make itself whole, according to Moffett. “The market has shown a clear preference for go-big-or-go-home digital strategies,” he wrote in a research note Friday. “The most obvious takeaway from yesterday’s news is that AT&T is, come hell or high water, going to drive traffic to HBO Max.”
Meanwhile, the question of “Is HBO Max on Roku?” will continue to be unanswered.
