Roku and HBO Max Reportedly Nearing Streaming Deal

WarnerMedia’s HBO Max streaming service has existed for months now, but still isn’t supported by any Roku streaming devices, which leaves a ton of households across the country without the ability to watch the service on their TVs. This has led to lower signup numbers than WarnerMedia was probably hoping for at launch, and it has left plenty of people frustrated that they can’t watch HBO Max on anything but a phone or computer. Well, it appears as though the struggle is finally going to be resolved.

According to a new report from The Desk, WarnerMedia and Roku are nearing a deal that will bring the HBO Max app to all Roky devices. There is no official timetable for the deal, but the report suggests that it could be completed by the end of 2020. Given all of the news about HBO Max over the past week, this makes perfect sense.

HBO Max launched without the support of Roku and Amazon Fire devices, as both Roku and Amazon didn’t want to lost the revenue afforded to them by standard HBO channel signups that came through their devices. It was announced at the start of the week, that Amazon and WarnerMedia had come to an agreement, allowing the app to appear on all Fire devices, just in time for the highly-anticipated Fresh Prince Reunion Special. With the Amazon situation resolved, it seemed like only a matter of time before WarnerMedia and Roku would come to an agreement.

Then came the game-changing news on Wednesday night.

Warner Bros. announced on Wednesday that, after numerous theatrical delays due to the pandemic, Wonder Woman 1984 would be premiering simultaneously in theaters and on HBO Max on Christmas Day. The Wonder Woman sequel was expected to pass $1 billion at the box office, so this will easily be the biggest direct-to-streaming release we’ve seen from any service so far. Given the gravity of this release, and how much Warners is counting on it to bring a huge wave of signups to HBO Max, there was just no way the company wouldn’t find a way to get a deal done with Roku. This could be the streaming event of the year and WarnerMedia needs HBO Max on as many devices as possible.

Fortunately for Roku users, it looks like the wait is finally over. HBO Max appears to be on its way.

Are you looking forward to checking out HBO Max on Roku? Let us know in the comments!