HBO shows are now streaming on Amazon Instant Video
‘True Blood,’ ‘Six Feet Under,’ and more — As promised, a number of HBO shows are now available to stream through Amazon Prime Instant Video. Starting today, you'll be able to stream the complete run of older shows like The Sopranos …
Context & Ripple Effects
Today's launch closes a loop that opened back in February 2010, when HBO was first reported preparing its own site to stream shows and movies — a signal that the network wanted a direct pipe to viewers. Instead of building that pipe first, HBO has licensed its back catalog out, handing Amazon the marquee content. Amazon had been telegraphing the move for weeks: a streaming deal was confirmed in early May, alongside news that it had green-lit six new original series of its own.
The pickup tells you how charged the question of HBO's distribution is: the same-day story ran across at least eight outlets, from the Washington Post and TechCrunch to Gizmodo and BGR. For Amazon, this arrives mid-scrum — the company is simultaneously fighting the Hachette dispute over print terms and defending net neutrality alongside Netflix and Google in its May 7 FCC letter, making video a visible strategic front.
First-order effects
- Amazon Prime Instant Video subscribers get complete runs of The Sopranos, Six Feet Under and True Blood starting today — the first premium-network library in the service, strengthening the case for Prime membership beyond shipping perks.
- HBO gains a second large-scale distribution point without discounting its core product: the licensed titles are older runs, so current-season value stays inside HBO's own subscription funnel.
Second-order effects
- Netflix — which stood beside Amazon in the May FCC net-neutrality letter as a fellow streamer — now competes against a rival whose video catalog comes bundled into a retail membership, changing the terms of the comparison for price-sensitive households.
- Cable and satellite distributors that pay carriage fees for HBO channels lose a talking point: HBO's library has just proven portable across platforms, weakening the exclusivity pitch that underpins traditional carriage deals.
Third-order effects
- If HBO keeps renting its archive to aggregators while it works toward the direct-to-consumer site it has contemplated since 2010, the network business splits into two tiers — commoditized back-catalog licensing and defended first-run exclusivity.
- For Amazon, every such deal deepens the flywheel where video content exists to sell Prime memberships rather than stand alone, pressuring other content owners to decide whether they license to the bundle or compete against it.
The trend: Premium TV networks are trading exclusive-library control for aggregator-scale distribution even as they lay groundwork for standalone services — HBO's Amazon deal is one data point in that pivot.