Roku users will soon no longer need a workaround to watch HBO Max. Roku has announced an agreement with HBO that—starting tomorrow, December 17—allows Roku users to download HBO Max from the Roku channel store.
Roku and WarnerMedia have been feuding over HBO Max since the streaming service launched back in May, with the two sides at odds over several issues. Chief among them: Whether Roku would be required to provide HBO Max as a separate app, or if Roku users would use Roku Pay to buy HBO Max subscriptions. It’s not clear how those disputes were ultimately resolved, as both sides are mum over the terms of the agreement.
Hisense
Roku streaming devices, including smart TVs running the Roku operating system, will soon be compatible with HBO Max.
Word of the settlement comes just a couple weeks before the COVID-delayed Wonder Woman 1984 debuts on HBO Max. The latest Wonder Woman epic will debut both on HBO Max and in theaters on Christmas Day, and it will mark HBO Max’s first 4K title. In addition to Wonder Woman 1984, all of Warner Bros’s upcoming 2021 movies will land on HBO Max the same day they arrive in theaters.
Now that HBO Max is coming to Roku, the streaming service is finally available on all the major streaming platforms. Amazon’s Fire TV was one of the last holdouts, but Amazon and WarnerMedia reached their own agreement last month.
Prior to the deal, Roku users were essentially high and dry when it came to HBO Max, although they could cast HBO Max videos to their devices via AirPlay.
Besides its movie offerings, HBO Max is the streaming home of such HBO shows as Game of Thrones, Big Little Lies, The Sopranos, Euphoria, Lovecraft County, Watchmen, and Last Week Tonight, as well as such syndicated shows as Friends and The Big Bang Theory.