“We’ll get it done.”
In what is perhaps the most affirmative statement yet regarding HBO Max’s six-month distribution impasse with Roku, Andy Forssell, the top product executive for the streaming service, told CNET that it’s only a matter of time before a deal with the No. 1 OTT platform operator gets done.
Forssell and other WarnerMedia executives were making the press rounds following the media conglomerate’s landmark announcement that it will premiere all 17 Warner Bros. theatrical releases day-and-date on HBO Max.
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The consensus has emerged among video industry observers that WarnerMedia and Roku are in at least somewhat advanced stages of talks to put the HBO Max app on the top connected TV device system in the U.S.
But the WarnerMedia theatrical slate announcement will do little to accelerate the timeline.
Forssell added that Roku has “been a good partner for years; they’ll be a good partner for years to come. We’ll figure something out. I have nothing to say about the timeline, and I don't think today’s announcement changes anything dramatically ... but we already both had really strong imperatives to find a way to work together. So we have to go do that, and we'll get it done.”
