Amazon’s deal with HBO for exclusive streaming rights...

Amazon’s deal with HBO for exclusive streaming rights for select HBO original series positions Prime Instant Video as a “viable competitor and potentially more appealing alternative to Netflix,” said Wedbush Securities analyst Michael Pachter in a research report Wednesday. The multiyear licensing agreement gives Amazon -- which recently raised its annual Prime subscription fee by $20 -- rights to HBO original programs and miniseries. The deal raises the stakes in the contest over consumer subscription dollars between Amazon and Netflix. The latter said this week that it would raise subscription fees for new members by $1-$2, depending on country, and let existing members keep their $7.99 fees for a “generous time period” before instituting a subscription increase for them, too. Revenue from fee increases “will enable us to acquire more content and deliver an even better streaming experience,” Netflix said in a shareholder letter. Amazon said last month it was raising its membership fee for Prime, which began as a two-day free shipping service that was later supplemented by free video streaming content. A $20 price hike pushed the annual fee for Amazon Prime to $99 for new members, effective March 20. Existing Prime members will renew at the higher rate, Amazon said. The agreement is the first time HBO content has been licensed to an online-only subscription streaming service, and applicable programming will remain available on all HBO platforms, Amazon and HBO said. Under the HBO deal, beginning May 21, Amazon Prime customers will be able to watch, at no additional charge to their Prime membership fee, all seasons of The Sopranos, The Wire, Deadwood, Rome, Six Feet Under, Treme, Eastbound & Down, Enlightened and Flight of the Conchords along with miniseries including Angels in America, Band of Brothers, John Adams, The Pacific and Parade’s End. Also included in the deal are select seasons of current series including Boardwalk Empire and True Blood, Amazon said. Original movies in the package include Game Change, Too Big to Fail and You Don’t Know Jack and documentaries Autopsy, Iceman, Ghosts of Abu Ghraib and When the Levees Broke. Comedy specials featuring Lewis Black, Ellen DeGeneres, Louis C.K. and Bill Maher fill out the library, it said. The deal will extend to additional seasons of current series that won’t be available at launch, along with early seasons of other series including Girls, The Newsroom and Veep, the companies said. The deal also includes HBO Go content for Amazon’s Fire TV streaming video box that launched earlier this month, giving Fire TV owners access to some 1,700 HBO titles, the companies said.