AT&T has signed a multi-year, strategic agreement with Home Box Office to extend HBO’s award-winning content across all AT&T products.
The agreement renews HBO’s existing contract with the AT&T DIRECTV and U-verse services, and will also make all HBO and CINEMAX content available on DIRECTV NOW. AT&T expects the new streaming service to roll out by the end of the year.
AT&T and HBO are not disclosing financial and other details of the new agreement.
Dan York, chief content officer for AT&T, said, “This is a first-of-its-kind deal for both companies and a big win for consumers, building off AT&T’s industry leading scale as an HBO distributor for the benefit of our wireless, broadband, and entertainment customer base.”
According to Simon Sutton, president, Global Distribution, HBO, the deal will deliver the best in TV programming to viewers across AT&T’s multi-platform experience. “The entertainment landscape has evolved and we are excited to innovate on both AT&T’s traditional and new platforms to further provide premium quality, extraordinary value and accessibility to viewers anywhere.”
In addition to bringing shows like HBO’s multiple Emmy-nominated “Game of Thrones” and “Veep” to the DIRECTV NOW platform, HBO and CINEMAX content will also be part of AT&T mobile video bundle offers. Details about those will be available at a later date.
As part of the agreement, DIRECTV and U-verse customers will continue to have access to HBO and CINEMAX content on linear TV, online and TV Everywhere apps, AT&T said.
Rajani Baburajan
editor@telecomlead.com
