HBO Classics such as The Sopranos could soon be disappearing from Amazon Video

Outside of Amazon’s original productions, some of the best shows to appear on Amazon Prime Video have been those made available via its deal with HBO.

HBO is the premium cable TV broadcaster behind such classics as The Wire, Sex and the City, and The Sopranos, but these show and others will shortly be disappearing from the service (via: TrustedReviews)

The move is due to HBO’s own HBO Now service, which allows viewers to subscribe to watch HBO’s content via a standalone $14.99 subscription.

Ditching Prime for Now

Previously HBO has encouraged users to subscribe to its own service by keeping its current flagship programs, including Game of Thrones and Westworld, as exclusives, while licensing out its back catalogue to other providers.

Speaking on a quarterly earnings call, HBO CEO Richard Plepler said: “I don’t think you’ll see us extend or expand our library programming on Amazon beyond the end of next year.”

HBO’s isn’t the only content to be disappearing from streaming platforms. Recently, Netflix announced that a host of Fox programs, including Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Arrested Development and Firefly, would be leaving the service.

It feels as though platforms such as Amazon Prime and Netflix, which once acted as aggregators of other provider’s content, are fast turning into content producers in their own right.

Consequently they’re being seen as competitors by the likes of HBO, who appear to no longer be willing to beef up those services' catalogues.