Photo: Thibault Penin
By: Nick Gambino
Roku has a bit of a tumultuous history with streamers. You might remember the rift between WarnerMedia and Roku back in 2020 which resulted in HBO Max not securing a spot on the popular line of streaming devices. This hurt the launch of the promising streaming service. They eventually decided to play nice, striking a deal in December 2020.
Roku has had other public spats with streamers like YouTube and even Amazon, but those issues were resolved. YouTube TV even disappeared from devices for a few months. Again, that’s all water under the bridge. As further evidence of their mission to mend relationships, Amazon and Roku have inked an extension on their deal to allow Prime Video residence on Roku devices.
“Roku and Amazon have reached a multi-year extension for their distribution agreement,” Roku said in a statement announcing the deal. “Customers can continue to access the Prime Video and IMDb TV apps on their Roku devices.”
Prime Video is clearly the more popular of the two streaming services, but IMDb TV is nothing to shake a stick at. The ad-supported free streamer is home to shows like Leverage: Redemption and Judy Justice (Judge Judy’s new show).
Amazon recently purchased legendary film studio MGM for $8 billion. They intend to bring a ton of classic titles from MGM’s back catalog to IMDb TV to beef up demand for the service.
Prime Video meanwhile has enjoyed success in the streamer-sphere with popular shows like The Boys, Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, and Reacher. Nothing is more indicative of the continued strength of the streamer than their future in the world of Tolkien. They’ve reportedly pumped at least a staggering $1 billion into The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power. The new series will drop in September 2022.
Amazon has also secured exclusive rights to stream NFL Thursday night games which is yet another big get. Apparently, the Bezos company is even in the running to secure the NFL Sunday Ticket after their decision to leave DirecTV.
Amazon and Roku are both popular leaders in their unique streaming roles. Roku received a nice share price bump after the announcement. All that is to say, the multi-year deal extension between Amazon and Roku is beneficial for both companies.
