While HBO Max and Peacock, which are respectively operated by WarnerMedia and NBCUniversal, are available on platforms such as mobile devices, most smart TVs, and online via their own websites, Roku and Fire TV are notable exceptions.
It’s possible that a deal for HBO Max could still be months away — Jason Kilar, WarnerMedia’s new CEO, discussed a handful of topics with Bloomberg in early August and suggested there may be a solution around Christmas when hardware sales would spike. In the interim, the glitzy new streaming services backed by multi-billion dollar conglomerates are still unavailable on two of the nation’s most popular streaming devices. What happened? The key issues holding up deals center on control of user data and ad inventory, according to industry analysts and sources familiar with the conversations. “It’s part of a debate over who controls the customer and how much information they get,” Rich Greenfield, an analyst at research firm Lightshed Partners, said in an interview. “Given the increasingly competitive device landscape everyone is looking for new forms of revenue, such as advertising. Who sells the ads and what the shares of the ad inventory are is certainly a major issue.” For Peacock, ad inventory is a particularly pertinent issue though it’s a topic that will impact HBO Max in the near future as well. While Peacock has an ad-free subscription tier, NBCUniversal has focused its marketing on the cheaper or free ad-supported tiers. Though there is not currently an ad-supported version of HBO Max WarnerMedia is expected to launch one in 2021. Unlike SVOD-only streaming services, advertising is a key component of Peacock’s business. The ad-supported versions of the streaming service only feature five minutes of advertisements per hour, which allows Peacock to sell its ads at particularly high prices, sources familiar to the conversations told IndieWire. Surrendering control of Peacock’s advertising would undermine the streaming service’s business model and the streaming service has been unable to come to an agreement with Roku on the subject, sources said.
The complications that come from negotiating ad-supported platforms aside, Doug Clinton, managing partner of tech VC fund Loup Ventures, argued that Disney may have been in an advantageous position in negotiations by the high level of anticipation for Disney+ leading up to its launch. It’s too early to suggest that the lack of Roku and Fire TV access for HBO Max and Peacock will irreversibly cripple their long-term viability, according to analysts. Clinton mused that both streamers will likely make their way to Roku and Fire TV in the next six months, and he and Greenfield agree that as each streamer is still in the process of courting early subscribers, as well as the constantly-evolving nature of the streaming industry meant that NBCUniversal and WarnerMedia would have time to leverage mutually-beneficial deals. The situation will likely become clearer as each streaming service begins to release more original content, according to Greenfield.
“Historically, cable and broadcast networks had compelling content and the leverage has historically been with the companies that have the content,” Greenfield said. “I think you’ll have to wait until the content ramps up for these streaming services to see how significant the lack of access on Roku and Fire TV is. If compelling new content doesn’t solve this than it was probably a mistake to launch these services in the first place.” Sign Up: Stay on top of the latest breaking film and TV news! Sign up for our Email Newsletters here.
