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Tell HN: HBO appears to be blaming Amazon and Roku in battle over HBO Max

4 points by mlthoughts2018 ↗ HN
I’ve been a loyal, full-paying HBO customer for many years, via Amazon Prime Video channels because I like consolidating many streaming channels into the single Prime Video interface.

I also use Roku for all of my streaming at home - I have no other devices which can effectively stream to my television sets and am not interested in buying others.

Recently after launching HBO Max, there’s been massive customer confusion about the difference between HBO Now, HBO Go and HBO Max, and finally it seems HBO Go is being fully retired (at least from Roku) on July 31 [0] and the fate of HBO Now (which covers the program for subscribing in Prime Video channels) is also very unclear and confusing.

The price of HBO Max ($15/mo) is the same as the Amazon Prime Video channel subscription, but the Prime Video option will not include expanded content items available in HBO Max.

While HBO feels it can charge the same price to two different customers yet deliver them different service, as a loyal HBO customer it is very upsetting to be treated this way.

I am suddenly relegated to being a second class customer undeserving of the expanded content despite paying the same price.

It’s unacceptably poor treatment from HBO, not from Amazon or Roku. To pull the rug out from under loyal customers who have configured their device and app choices over years to best suit their needs is overtly antagonistic towards subscribers.

HBO has some of the best programming, but if I can’t keep consuming it in the way that’s been working for me for years, I’ll have to cancel.

I submitted a help center complaint about this and if you are an HBO customer being negatively affected by HBO’s choices around HBO Max, please consider doing the same:

- https://help.hbonow.com/ContactUs

- https://help.hbogo.com/hc/en-us

[0]: https://help.hbogo.com/hc/en-us/articles/360049485594#h_16a41e4f-aba8-406f-8ced-35c7df013a8b

3 comments

[ 2.7 ms ] story [ 19.8 ms ] thread
pwg
HBO does not have your best interests in mind.

They only have their own profit interests. They believe they can better profit this way than before.

The only signal you actually have to send to them is cancellation of your subscription (thereby reducing their profits).

If you are unhappy with their new arrangement, you should cancel your subscription. Because continuing to pay them signals that you are ok with this change.

robertcope
Bingo. I went without TV/movies for years because I didn't want to consume them they way they were made available. Thankfully, streaming became a thing and I happily pay for various subscriptions. I have canceled my HBO subscription, though, a while back; I can't honestly remember what pushed me to do that, could be the Max thing. Ironically, I get Max "for free" via my ATT Fiber subscription, but I haven't bothered to look at it because I can't stream it via Roku.
mimixco
I'm in exactly the same boat. I finally switched from HBO on Amazon Prime on the day South Park left Hulu and HBO Max became a Hulu channel that you can't watch with the Hulu app. (If that isn't confusing enough by itself.)

The HBO Max app is terrible, clearly first generation. Many standard things we've come to rely on in the Amazon Prime (or even Netflix) apps don't work in HBO Max. Navigation is awful and the placement of buttons and tabs leads you to stupid pages like "About" when you are trying to navigate seasons or episdoes.

The worst thing is that HBO Max app can't stream in the background on mobile. If you do anything else on your phone, the entire app stops and reopening it returns to the home screen! Amazon Prime Video and Netflix can both stream in the background in a thumbnail window. Even Hulu knows that you were watching a show and returns to the same spot in that show.

After paying for HBO for more than 20 years, I also feel jilted by this "one price, two classes of service" model. Not cool, HBO.