Distribution battles between streaming services and platforms came into focus in 2020, highlighted by contentious negotiations involving Roku, AT&T, Amazon and Comcast.
When HBO Max launched near the end of May, it did so without a native app on Amazon and Roku devices. When Peacock launched nationwide in July, it had the same holes in its distribution footprint.
Months passed before Roku and Peacock agreed on terms, which came just days after NBCUniversal threatened to pull its authenticated apps on the platform. It took even longer for HBO Max to come to terms with Amazon and Roku – both of which likely wanted to be included in AT&T’s audacious plan to release every 2021 Warner Bros. film in U.S. theaters and on HBO Max on the same day. Peacock and Amazon still haven’t worked out a deal.
The standoffs between these companies – often about control over how apps are sold and how revenue is split up – left millions of legacy HBO subscribers wondering when they’d get access to the expanded content lineup within HBO Max. The fights often featured the same heated language typical in traditional MVPD and programmer carriage disputes.
In May, Amazon accused AT&T of “choosing to deny loyal HBO customers access to the expanded catalog.” AT&T countered, saying Amazon was “treating HBO Max and its customers differently than how they’ve chosen to treat other services and their customers.”
According to the Wall Street Journal, Roku has used its large user base – the company reported 46 million active accounts in November – to demand favorable terms in distribution deals with content owners. It’s led to Roku publicly facing off against AT&T, NBCUniversal, Fox and Charter this year. Media analyst Michael Nathanson compared Roku’s position to pay TV providers.
“They’ve kind of replaced cable operators as gatekeepers,” Nathanson told the publication. “Those guys were pretty ruthless too.”
Many of the most high-profile streaming service versus streaming platform fights have been resolved this year but a new round may be waiting in 2021. ViacomCBS plans to relaunch CBS All Access as Paramount+ next year and it could potentially set up another situation where existing CBS All Access subscribers on platforms like Apple, Amazon and Roku are caught in the middle of negotiations. Discovery+, the cable programmer’s upcoming streaming service drawing on content from all its networks, is slated to arrive on January 4 but details are still scarce about which platforms will carry the service at launch.
More distribution drama will almost certainly happen in 2021.