Last year, reports indicated that Roku and Amazon were approaching an impasse that could lead to Amazon’s free, ad-supported television (FAST) channel IMDb TV and potentially even the subscription video-on-demand (SVOD) service Amazon Prime Video being removed from Roku devices.
However, on Monday, it was announced that the two companies had come to an agreement to avoid that unfortunate outcome. Roku said in a statement, “Roku and Amazon have reached a multi-year extension for their distribution agreement. Customers can continue to access the Prime Video and IMDb TV apps on their Roku devices.”
No further details were released at the time, so we don’t yet know how many years the agreement is for, or if it came with additional access to customer data, which Amazon reportedly was asking for as part of the negotiations. This was also a point of contention between Roku and Google as the two came down to the wire late last year in discussions to keep YouTube TV and YouTube on the smart devices.
A recent study finds that as customers move between services, platforms are looking to increase their control over the valuable data that inherently comes with subscriptions and usage in order to learn more about what content is keeping users engaged and subscribed.
The deal comes at an opportune time for customers as Amazon recently completed its $8.5 billion merger with MGM, which will bring a nearly century’s worth of content into the Amazon fold. Prime Video is also set to become the exclusive home of the NFL’s Thursday night football games this fall and they are considered one of the favorites to land the league’s “NFL Sunday Ticket” beginning in 2023 as well.
Amazon Prime Video
Amazon Prime Video is a subscription video streaming service that includes on-demand access to 10,000+ movies, TV shows, and Prime Originals like “The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power,” “Jack Ryan,” “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel,” “The Boys,” and more. Subscribers can also add third-party services like Max, Showtime, STARZ, and dozens more with Amazon Prime Video Channels. Prime Video also offers exclusive live access to NFL Thursday Night Football.