HBO Gets in Bed With Amazon Prime

HBO and Amazon announced this morning a multiyear partnership giving Amazon Prime Instant Video exclusive access to select HBO programming. So now you can stop stealing your parents’ HBO GO password, and start stealing their Amazon Prime password instead.

“This is the first time that HBO programming has been licensed to an online-only subscription streaming service,” this morning’s press release states. (Subtext: Major burn, Netflix.)

Beginning May 21, the Amazon Prime library will include all seasons of concluded HBO programs The Sopranos, The Wire, Deadwood, Rome, Six Feet Under, Eastbound & Down, Enlightened, and Flight of the Conchords, as well as the miniseries Angels in America, Band of Brothers, John Adams, The Pacific, and Parade’s End. Select HBO original movies, documentaries, and comedy specials will be up for the streaming, too.

And what of shows still on the air? The press release promises early seasons of True Blood, Treme, and Boardwalk Empire right away, with the first seasons of Girls, The Newsroom, and Veep to be added at some future date.

There's significant radio silence regarding Game of Thrones' future availability, but what you can hear is the sound of millennials everywhere price-checking an Amazon Prime membership (it’s $99 a year)... and wondering what that Netflix subscription has done for them lately.