Updated 7/14/2020: WarnerMedia corrected misinformation provided to Multichannel News by TiVo--the HBO Max app is available on TiVo Stream 4K through the Google Play Store, but it isn't integrated into the Stream app.

AT&T/WarnerMedia's HBO Max app, as well Comcast/NBCUniversal's Peacock, which launches Wednesday (July 15), are supported by Google's Android TV connected TV operating system, as well as other Google platforms, including Chromecast. 

Users of the TiVo Stream 4K device, which is powered by Android TV, access HBO Max directly through the HBO Max app obtained through the Google Play Store. 

Original story continues here:

Released in early May and available through July directly from TiVo for a $50 introductory price, TiVo Stream 4K is attempting to disrupt the connected-TV device market dominated by Roku and Amazon by using proprietary software that surfaces recommended content across OTT programming services.

The impasses with Roku and Amazon reportedly center around app integration — for several years, the legacy HBO Now app has been atomized within the respective Amazon Prime Video Channels and Roku Channels ecosystems. Roku and Fire TV users who subscribe to HBO have accessed the content through Roku and Amazon apps.

WarnerMedia is said to be trying to extricate the HBO Max app on the respective leading device platforms. It wants users to interface directly with HBO Max, as they do with Netflix, Hulu and Disney Plus. In other words, when you watch Disney Plus on an Amazon Fire TV-enabled box, dongle or streaming stick, it’s directly through the Disney Plus app.

More than one month after launch, HBO Max still doesn’t have support for Roku and Fire TV, platforms that control nearly two-thirds of connected TV usage in the U.S. HBO subscribers who use Roku and Amazon devices still must use the legacy HBO Now app (recently rebranded as simply “HBO”). If they subscribe to HBO through the respective Amazon and Roku “channels” SVOD aggregation portals, HBO content is still disaggregated into those Roku and Amazon apps. But Roku and Amazon users don’t have access to the broader HBO Max experience, which now includes the vast array of WarnerMedia content and original series.

It’s often asked how many subscribers WarnerMedia might be missing out on by not being more ubiquitously available. But there’s another perhaps overlooked issue: How many legacy HBO subscribers — who would not pay a dollar more to enjoy the expanded $15-a-month HBO Max experience — might switch to a device like TiVo Stream 4K to access the new service?

Notably, Comcast and NBCUniversal are conducting the national launch of their SVOD service, Peacock, on July 15. At press time, NBCU had not locked down app support deals for Peacock with Roku or Amazon.

When will TiVo’s big entry into the streaming device business, the TiVo Stream 4K, finally be available for purchase?

That’s a question some are asking now, more than three months after TiVo made a splashing introduction of the $70 streaming dongle at CES back in January. At the time, TiVo said its Stream 4K—which it said would support all major OTT apps available in Google Play, in addition to its own new TiVo+ streaming service—would be available in April.

Related: TiVo Joins the Crowded OTT Device Market with Stream 4K

TiVo posted a video on Twitter Thursday, with reps for the company talking about how “super-excited” they are about the product, which was still listed in the tweet as “coming very soon.”

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When Next TV asked over Twitter how soon, a company rep responded, “The exact date of its availability hasn't been announced yet.”

Another responder noted, “You've been saying ‘coming very soon’ for months on end, and people keep buying Roku units, especially during these trying times. You're being left in the dust.”

Indeed, among the many consumer surveys looking at OTT consumption during the pandemic lockdown, Tubi published one that suggested that consumers are spending, on average, an entire workday (eight hours) streaming video. A publicly traded maker of OTT devices, such as Roku, hasn’t yet indicated in a first-quarter earnings report that hardware sales are way up. But nobody will be surprised if that happens next month.

Corporately, TiVo has a lot going on right now, not the least of which is its developing merger with Xperi. But speaking to investors in January, after the Stream 4K was named a Wall Street Journal “Best of CES” product, TiVo CEO Dave Shull defined the device as a priority.

“We’re only talking about streaming now,” he told attendees of the Needham Growth Conference in New York. “We’re going to bet on the streaming wars. We have a really easy solution to them.”

Shull said TiVo’s advances in search and discovery, along with Xperi’s entry into device markets like smart TVs, should enable the TiVo 4K Stream to quickly catch up in an OTT device market dominated by Roku and Amazon.

The question remains, though, when will the TiVo 4K Stream ever get to that market? And what’s holding it up at this point?