I feel like this is the first legitimate shot Amazon's taken at Netflix. No GoT for now, though. Still, I'd consider this at least a small win for Amazon.

http://recode.net/2014/04/23/amazon-makes-a-big-move-snags-older-hbo-shows/

You still can’t get new HBO shows, like this season’s “Game of Thrones,” without paying for TV.

But starting in May, you’ll be able to get some of the premium cable channel’s older stuff online — via an Amazon Prime subscription.

That means Amazon Prime subscribers will be able to see shows that have already run on HBO, like The Sopranos and The Wire. And they can also watch older seasons of some shows that are still on the air, like Girls, three years after they air.

It’s the first time HBO has offered access to its catalog via a streaming video service that’s not its own HBO Go. And it gives Amazon an important bragging right/differentiation point as it tries to gain ground on rival Netflix.

A person familiar with the deal says HBO did not shop the catalog to Netflix or other potential Amazon rivals.

Unlike HBO subscribers who use HBO Go, Amazon customers won’t be able to get all of HBO’s library. The omissions tell an interesting story about the state of digital licensing.

Some of the shows that Amazon customers won’t see, including “Sex and the City,” “Entourage” and “Curb Your Enthusiasm,” have their streaming rights tied up in syndication deals with TV outlets. And HBO has kept at least one of its shows – “Game of Thrones” — out of the deal, simply because the property is so valuable to the network, according to a person familiar with the transaction.

The absence of “Game of Thrones” also speaks to the balancing act HBO is trying to pull off here. It wants to make more money from shows it has already sold to its paying subscribers, without giving those subscribers any reason to leave.

That’s not entirely new territory for HBO, which already sells digital versions of its older shows — including Game of Thrones — via outlets like Amazon and Apple’s iTunes store.

It also wants to assure the pay-TV operators that carry HBO that it’s not undercutting the offering it is wholesaling to them. A person close to HBO says the money the network makes from its Amazon deal will be plowed back into developing more programming and improving the company’s technology.

The upside for Amazon in this deal is clear — it gets a big, shiny brand it can use to set itself apart from the competition. It could also work well for HBO, and may even help the company market itself to non-subscribers.

The danger for HBO is that it may teach non-subscribers — and perhaps some current subscribers — that they don’t need to pay for an HBO subscription (and perhaps, a TV subscription at all) if they’re willing to be patient.

Either HBO figures that’s a risk it can take — or it’s a risk it has to take.

i'm out.
_____________________
"WHOLESALE REUSABLE GROCERY BAGS!!"
@etfp

I can put my Wire DVDs away and just click ahead. I love it!. Plus I can finally watch Treme.

Actually, I think it's more HBO's shot at Netflix than Amazon. It's not like Amazon offered anything to HBO that Netflix would not have. Netflix fashions itself a competitor to HBO. Right or wrong, that's how they are positioning themselves. HBO is trying to hurt Netflix by going to Netflix's competitor.

EDIT: It's like a woman trying to make a guy jealous by hooking up with another dude who isn't quite as attractive or popular. The other dude didn't really do anything differently than the first dude. He just benefited from a woman who's trying to make a statement to the first dude.

>I feel like this is the first legitimate shot Amazon's taken
>at Netflix. No GoT for now, though. Still, I'd consider this
>at least a small win for Amazon.

The app on my TV is pretty shitty. They need to add a Netflix-like queue and, most likely, make it more of a standalone site than simply an extension of Amazon.

It's not really intuitive at all.

It only starts in a sidebar and it doesn't even sync up my watch list. I have to search for whatever show I want to watch.

The one on my Kindle is decent but the design is confusing.

i'm out.
_____________________
"WHOLESALE REUSABLE GROCERY BAGS!!"
@etfp

They need to use that as a template

http://card.mygamercard.net/lastgame/rjcc.png

www.engadgethd.com - the other stuff i'm looking at

Notable missing older shows: Larry Sanders Show, Arli$, 1st and 10, Not Necessarily The News, The Hitchhiker,Fraggle Rock, Kids IN The Hall, Dream On, Mr Show, Taxicab Confessions, Tracey Takes On, Tenacious D, K Street, D Ali G Show, Entourage

http://www.amazon.com/HBO-Providers/b/ref=amb_link_411517782_3?ie=UTF8&node=293883011

Boardwalk Empire
Bored to Death
Eastbound & Down
Enlightened
Treme
True Blood
Band of Brothers
Big Love
Carnivàle
Deadwood
Flight of the Conchords
In Treatment
Mildred Pierce
Oz
The Pacific
Rome
Six Feet Under
The Sopranos
The Wire

John Adams
Generation Kill
John From Cincinnati

I got a lot to catch up on, and I see Carnivale on there too, nice.

And I'm glad they've got Big Love on there, that was a really underrated show.

That show reminds me why not to commit crimes.