AMC Networks said that it has increased the distribution of its AMC Plus ad-free subscription service by making it available through Prime Video and Apple TV for $8.99 a month.

AMC Plus was launched in June with Comcast/Xfinity and added Dish and Sling TV in July.

Subscribers to AMC Plus get access to new and library content, including early access to AMC originals such as The Walking Dead universe and other programming from AMC’s linear networks and its streaming services Shudder, Sundance Now and IFC Films Unlimited.

AMC Plus has all seven seasons of Mad Men, starting Oct. 1.

New series including Soulmates, Gangs of London and The Salisbury Poisonings are exclusively on AMC Plus months ahead of their debuts on linear channels. Soulmates premieres Oct. 1 on AMC Plus.

A new linear channel featuring AMC programming and movies is also part of the AMC Plus bundle.

On Apple TV channels and Prime Video Channels, AMC Plus  also includes access to the live, linear, ad-supported channels AMC, BBC America, IFC and SundanceTV, in addition to the expansive on demand libraries available through these services.  

Updated 8/5/2020: ScreenHits TV now says it's open to select users only in beta mode. "A select group of early adopters can now access ScreenHits TV's BETA version in the UK and the US. For those with access, you would have received an email on Friday, 31st of July notifying you of this," reads a message obtained when you click on the "sign up" tab on the ScreenHits TV landing page. 

"For new subscribers, don't fret, you'll gain access to the fully launched platform soon enough," the site adds. 

Updated 8/3/2020: UK startup ScreenHits TV said it would publicly launch on Monday a new free software product that will unify everything from playback to search/recommendation to billing for multiple major SVOD services. 

Given that the big-media-backed streaming services are currently fighting the giant OTT OS platform operators, Roku and Amazon, to keep control of their own apps, the idea that they'd let a small international startup disaggegate their content and control their customer relationships and data seemed liked a reach. But we've played along so far, because it'd quite the feat if the claim is legit. 

As of 5:30 p.m. EST Monday, however, the ScreenHits TV app isn't available in either the Google Play or Apple App Store.

Next TV tried to sign up for the service directly on the web via Google Chrome. We punched in our personal email address. And we checked off which SVOD services we subscribe to (seeing the now extinct "HBO Go" brand listed as an option was another red flag).

A window surfaced saying we'd be notified shortly about the app and that we should "stay safe" until then.

A rep at ScreenHits's New York PR agency said the site is still in "pre-launch" mode. 

"We will pass along the link to the launch homepage as soon as it’s up, so you know when you’ll be able to sign in and start using the service," the rep added. 

Original story starts here:

UK-based startup ScreenHits TV says it has achieved a Holy Grail in the video streaming business, combining multiple major OTT services into one app, giving consumers a centralized, searchable location for all their programming, complete with AI-powered recommendation and consolidated billing. 

Launching Monday, ScreenHits TV  claims to consolidate billing and play shows from major SVOD services including HBO Max, Peacock, Disney Plus, Netflix, Hulu and Amazon Prime Video through its own app. ScreenHits seeks to provide users the convenience of having all of their programming consolidated into one linear program guide, or Netflix-style recommendation UI, depending on their preference. 

Use of the ScreenHits platform is free. Users pay a base fee of $1.99 to bundle streaming services through the app, however.

In an age in which major SVOD services like Peacock and HBO Max have been kept off the biggest connected TV devices, Roku and Amazon, with the various stakeholders battling over whose app delivers the content, handles the customer relationship and collects the precious data, ScreenHits’s claim—well, we’ll just say—seems a little suspect. 

But for the notable exception of Netflix, a ScreenHits rep told Next TV that “the majority” of OTT apps on its platform make their content streamable directly via the StreamHits app via “deep links.” 

“Netflix in particular does not currently provide deep links. So while those who integrate Netflix within the ScreenHits TV app will be able to integrate the Netflix content within the app and be able to click on a video that they find and immediately start to stream that video, the video will be played from within the Netflix‘s video player. This is how Netflix operates will all aggregators, even Roku,” the rep said. “But from a consumer standpoint, they will not notice the difference as when they click on a title the video will begin to automatically play.”

ScreenHits didn’t specify which services allowed their content to be disaggregated through its app. But Disney Plus is known to have also resisted disaggregation on platforms including Apple TV, Roku and Amazon Prime Video Channels—streaming of Disney Plus shows on those platforms always goes through the Disney Plus app. 

According to CrunchBase data, ScreenHits was founded in 2012 by Rose Adkins, a former Hollywood Reporter and NBCUniversal executive. The company is angel funded to the tune of $1.2 million.

In addition to disaggregation, ScreenHits TV also claims to control the customer relationship for a number of its OTT partners. 

“All bundles offered on their platform are billed through ScreenHits TV. The subscriber doesn’t have to pay for each individual bundle separately,” a company rep said. Indeed, ScreenHits is advertising a 25% discount on select bundles of services signed up for through its platform. Users who have existing subscriptions that were signed up for outside ScreenHits can still disaggregate these subscriptions through the ScreenHits app. 

As for device support, ScreenHits said its app is compatible with Apple and Google devices, Amazon Fire TV Stick, and Samsung smart TVs. No, it didn't mention Roku. 

Updated on 8/3/2020: An earlier version of this report included a ScreenHits TV YouTube product video. But the company took it down Monday. 

Google is testing a new system that will give streaming services the option of letting new subscribers sign up their platforms on Android TV similar to how it’s done on Amazon Prime Channels.

Google first discussed this year ago at its I/O developers conference as part of a broader redesign of the Google Play Store component within its Android TV OTT device ecosystem.

Visit Next TV to read more stories like this one. 

The redesign subsequently rolled out. But the new “Channels”-like feature is only now entering what Google conceded is a “pilot” phase.

The new feature, outlined in this Google support page, allows Android TV users to select a subscription streaming app within Google Play, then subscribe to it using their Google authentication data, thus cutting down a whole lot of data entry steps.

"We’re always working on improving the user experience for Android TV users. This feature that we are piloting with select partners make it easier to subscribe and install apps in Google Play more quickly,” Google said in a statement published by Android Police.

It’s unclear as to what video publishers, if any, have agreed to participate in Google’s pilot so far.

Also read: Google Reportedly Moving Forward with Android TV-powered, Nest-branded OTT Device

Amazon Prime Channels has offered the convenience of “one-click” sign-up to consumers since 2015. And major SVOD platforms including HBO Now, CBS All Access and Acorn TV have significantly grown their subscriber bases through Prime Channels, but that has come at the expense of not only sharing large chunks of subscription revenue with Amazon, but also ceding the direct-to-customer relationship. Users watch their content through the Amazon Prime Video app, and Amazon handles data collection and billing.

Roku and Apple have copied the Prime Channels strategy, but publishers including AT&T and Disney have pushed back on it of late, seeking to control more aspects of the customer relationship. 

Google is testing a new system that will give streaming services the option of letting new subscribers sign up their platforms on Android TV similar to how it’s done on Amazon Prime Channels.

Google first discussed this year ago at its I/O developers conference as part of a broader redesign of the Google Play Store component within its Android TV OTT device ecosystem. 

The redesign subsequently rolled out. But the new “Channels”-like feature is only now entering what Google conceded is a “pilot” phase.

The new feature, outlined in this Google support page, allows Android TV users to select a subscription streaming app within Google Play, then subscribe to it using their Google authentication data, thus cutting down a whole lot of data entry steps. 

"We’re always working on improving the user experience for Android TV users. This feature that we are piloting with select partners make it easier to subscribe and install apps in Google Play more quickly,” Google said in a statement published by Android Police. 

It’s unclear as to what video publishers, if any, have agreed to participate in Google’s pilot so far. 

Also read: Google Reportedly Moving Forward with Android TV-powered, Nest-branded OTT Device

Amazon Prime Channels has offered the convenience of “one-click” sign-up to consumers since 2015. And major SVOD platforms including HBO Now, CBS All Access and Acorn TV have significantly grown their subscriber bases through Prime Channels, but that has come at the expense of not only sharing large chunks of subscription revenue with Amazon, but also ceding the direct-to-customer relationship. Users watch their content through the Amazon Prime Video app, and Amazon handles data collection and billing. 

Roku and Apple have copied the Prime Channels strategy, but publishers including AT&T and Disney have pushed back on it of late, seeking to control more aspects of the customer relationship. 

AT&T’s next CEO, John Stankey, released a media-technology bombshell earlier this week, when he announced that his company’s new subscription streaming service, HBO Max, would likely launch May 27 without app support for the world’s top OTT device ecosystem, Amazon Fire TV. 

“I’m pleased to say we’re going to be in virtually all app stores [with] maybe one exception. It looks like we may not be in the Amazon Fire app store when all of this is said and done,” Stankey said.

LightShed Partners analyst Richard Greenfield said in a blog post targeted to investors Thursday that the impasse between AT&T and Amazon likely centers around the way HBO Max will be distributed within Amazon’s Prime Channels, the tech giant’s pioneering aggregated marketplace for SVOD services. 

Also Read: AT&T’s Stankey: HBO Max Probably Won't Launch with Amazon Fire TV Support

Notably, AT&T’s legacy SVOD service, HBO Now, has been a lynchpin for Prime Channels since  the aggregated platform launched in 2015. 

“We believe it all comes down to the legacy HBO Now service, which will continue to exist for some period of time,” Greenfield wrote.

Also Read: HBO Max: Everything You Need to Know

The decision by the erstwhile Time Warner Inc. to allow Amazon to “dis-aggregate” HBO Now into Prime Channels, resell the programming and handle all portions of the customer relationship, spurred the growth of a “channels” movement, Greenfield contends. 

“HBO was quickly joined by Showtime, Starz, CBS All-Access and an array of smaller legacy media owned streaming apps who all embraced channels stores. As Amazon became the primary driver of SVOD subscribers for its channel partners (taking a meaningful share of the subscription economics), Roku Channels and Apple TV+ Channels followed with similar strategies,” the analyst said.

According to a report published in late 2018 by BMO analysts Daniel Salmon and William Lowden (detailed here by Variety), Amazon takes as much as 70% off the top of subscription revenue from its Prime Channels SVOD partners, who in turn, access as many as 45% of their subscribers through Prime Channels. The analysts estimated at the time that Amazon was taking in annual revenue of around $1.7 billion through Channels. 

Netflix and Hulu, however, never allowed their content to be disaggregated into third-party “channels” apps, Greenfield noted. And notably, neither did Amazon Prime Video. 

Why go to the trouble and expense of building a direct-to-consumer platform, only to cede the customer relationship—and a big portion of the profits—to a third party like Amazon or Apple, which in turn, is directly competing with you in the SVOD arena? Greenfield and LightShed wondered in a previous investor missive published last year.

The Walt Disney Company probably was thinking the same thing when it too reported a late-inning impasse with Amazon in the run-up to the successful launch of Disney Plus last November.

Also read: Disney Plus Still Lacks an Amazon Fire TV App a Week Away from Launch

Ultimately, Disney managed to gain Amazon Fire TV app support, but it refused, like Netflix and Hulu, to let Amazon process and resell Disney Plus through Prime Channels. (But as Greenfield noted, it does allow Apple+ TV Channels to include Disney Plus programming in its app. But once users select Disney Plus programming, they’re booted out of the Apple TV app and sent to Disney Plus.)

As Greenfield sees it, AT&T and Amazon are probably arguing about similar things, with the dynamics complicated by the legacy HBO Now streaming service. 

“A new subscriber to HBO Max or an existing HBO Now subscriber who is automatically upgraded to HBO Max at launch, via the Amazon Prime channel store would only be able to watch legacy HBO content via the Prime Channel platform and would need to download the HBO Max app separately to watch content that is exclusive to HBO Max (catalog such as Friends and The Big Bang Theory to original series and movies). We believe Amazon looks at that consumer experience as subpar and overly complicated. We agree.”

AT&T and its WarnerMedia division have already announced HBO Max distribution deals with Hulu, Charter Communications and Google, the latter of which controls the increasingly critical Android TV OTT device ecosystem, as well as virtual pay TV service YouTube TV.

For its part, Amazon Fire TV is the world’s most proliferate OTT device ecosystem, announcing the surpassing of 40 million active users globally back in January. 

In the U.S., Fire TV ranks second to Roku, which also has around 40 million active users. 

While Stankey said most OTT platforms are locked up outside Amazon Fire TV, it’s notable that the conglomerate hasn’t specifically touted a partnership with Roku yet. 

In fact, after Stankey's comments, Roku issued this statement: "As the No. 1 streaming platform in the U.S. with over 40 million active accounts that rely upon Roku to access their favorite programs and to discover new content, we are focused on entering into win-win distribution agreements with all new OTT services as part of their launch strategies. While we don't typically comment on specific deal terms or negotiations, the fact is that in this instance while we believe that HBOMax would benefit greatly from distribution on Roku at launch, we do not currently have an agreement in place."

Stay tuned. A lot will happen before HBO Max launches on May 27.