After an impasse that stretched back several years, Comcast finally has brokered a deal with Roku that allows its subscribers to access HBO Go and Showtime Anytime streams on their Roku devices.
The new deal was announced on Tuesday in a blog posting by Comcast’s Matt Strauss, senior vice president and general manager, video services, and came the day after HBO announced its streaming service was live on the Amazon Fire TV.
“Starting today, our customers can access HBO Go and Showtime Anytime apps on their Roku players and Roku TV, joining other platforms like AppleTV, Xbox One and Google’s Chromecast where subscribers can watch shows and movies from these networks,” Strauss wrote. “Of course, our customers continue to have instant and unlimited access to nearly the entire HBO and Showtime catalogs through Xfinity On Demand, and our Xfinity TV apps.”
With HBO and Showtime channels in the fold for Roku’s media streamers, Strauss said Comcast could now authenticate more than 90 network apps on up to 17 separate devices.
“And those numbers will continue to grow as new technologies and platforms emerge,” according to Strauss. “Our customers have access to one of the largest content libraries in the world and we’ll continue to make opportunities available for them to watch when and where they want.”
While both Roku and Comcast were able to strike TV Everywhere deals with multiple partners over the years, HBO GO and Showtime Anytime on Roku devices were denied to Comcast’s authenticated subscribers of the premium channels when an agreement couldn’t be hammered out between the two.