Ever since the announcement of “Wonder Woman 1984” coming to HBO Max on Christmas Day, there has been growing concern from owners of Roku media players as to why WarnerMedia and Roku have not yet come to a deal.
That push to get the app on the player only intensified this past week with Warner Bros. Pictures announcing its entire 2021 slate will be following the same plan.
Now, WarnerMedia direct-to-consumer products general manager Andy Forssell says he’s confident both companies will find a way to bring HBO Max to Roku. Forssell spoke with CNet just after the big Warner announcement on Thursday and said:
“[Roku has[ been a good partner for years; they’ll be a good partner for years to come. We’ll figure something out. I have nothing to say about the timeline, and I don’t think today’s announcement changes anything dramatically … but we already both had really strong imperatives to find a way to work together. So we have to go do that, and we’ll get it done.”
This marks the most public commitment to the pair coming to terms to date. HBO Max launched in late May and was available on Day 1 on numerous devices from Apple TV boxes to and certain cablers, phones, tablets, game consoles, Chromecast and some smart TVs.
The two big exceptions were also the two biggest dedicated streaming boxes in terms of domestic market share – namely the assorted Amazon Fire and Roku boxes. A few weeks ago WarnerMedia closed a deal with Amazon which saw HBO Max come to those devices – leaving Roku the only real major player without it.
There has been an obvious question as to whether the WarnerMedia announcement has put more pressure on Roku to come to a deal. The impasse that has divided the companies remains the same – Roku wants to keep HBO/HBO Max as a channel it can sell directly to customers, WarnerMedia is insisting that HBO Max be available as a standalone app.
Both can lose out of the standoff – Warner from lacking access to tens of millions of customers, Roku from people who are now looking to its bigger Apple and Amazon rivals with boxes that offer more and thus could undermine its domination of the U.S. market.
When this will settle? We’ll see
