Channels & viewing

[HelderCordeiro]

MAX does not work in Portugal. I have a HBO MAX subscription, but cannot use it because HBO MAX is not available anymore in ROKU and MAX is not available in Europe. What can I do? Anyone knows?

[makaiguy]

@HelderCordeiro-
HBO wrote their MAX Roku App to run on Roku devices running Roku software 11 or higher. (Source: https://help.max.com/US-en/Answer/Detail/000002506, 9 Feb 2024, check for updates

MAX country availability:

MAX is currently available only in the United States (including American Samoa, Guam, the Northern Mariana Islands, Puerto Rico, and the US Virgin Islands).

Europe:

May 21, 2024: Åland Islands, Andorra, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Canary Islands, Ceuta, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Faroe Islands, Finland, Greenland, Hungary, Madeira, Melilla, Moldova, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Norway, Portugal, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Svalbard & Jan Mayen, Sweden    

June 11, 2024: Poland and France  Here's when the enhanced HBO Max app will be available:      June 11, 2024: Netherlands

July 1, 2024: Belgium

The app availability timeline may change–stay tuned for more info.

[lgyorvari]

It is May 21 and still not available.

Who to blame? Max or Roku?

[RokuCarly · Accepted solution]

Welcome, and thank you for posting here in the Roku Community, @lgyorvari!

Thank you for contacting us about the availability of the Max channel at your current location. We'd be happy to provide further information. 

It's worth noting that channel availability may vary based on your location and the agreements between Roku and the broadcasters. It's best to directly contact the channel provider, as they provided and maintained their channel on the Roku streaming platform. 

You can also let them know you'd like their channel to be available on the Roku platform in your region.

You may reach them here: Max Channel Support

We hope you find this information helpful.

Best regards,
Carly

[atc98092]

---

@lgyorvari wrote:

It is May 21 and still not available.

Who to blame? Max or Roku?

---

Only HBO can control where their service is available, and on what devices. It is not uncommon for a service to be available in a particular country, but that service isn't available on a Roku device. Again, that's under the control of HBO, not Roku.

[lgyorvari]

Then, the way to start  bombing MAX support in angry user mode accuse them of having a cartel to intentionally favour or discriminate platforms

[atc98092]

You are overlooking something. Companies like HBO have to license the content they stream (other than what they own themselves) and those agreements dictate where they are permitted to stream the content. In many cases, the content owners have different agreements with different companies with different geographic restrictions. So it might be completely out of HBO's hands where they can stream most of their content. And since Roku does not officially offer/support their devices in Portugal, it's also understandable why a provider like HBO restricts their content in that specific country on Roku devices. 

If you want to see the countries where Roku is officially available, go to the Roku home page and at the bottom it has a link to change the country page, and the box it opens shows all supported countries. 

[lgyorvari]

Then take a look on this:

 I'm living in Hungary and Roku devices are not supported but:

Netflix on Roku in unsupported country (Hungary)  ----- OK

Amazon Prime on Roku in unsupported country (Hungary)  ----- OK

Disney + on Roku in unsupported country (Hungary)  ----- OK

Netflix on Amazon Fire in unsupported country (Hungary)  ----- OK

Amazon Prime on Amazon Fire in unsupported country (Hungary)  ----- OK

Disney + on Amazon Fire in unsupported country (Hungary)  ----- OK

And surprise:

Max on Amazon Fire in unsupported country (Hungary)  ----- OK

But:

Max on Roku in unsupported country (Hungary)  ----- Blocked

* all streaming service officially supported in Hungary

[atc98092]

@lgyorvari again, it's the sole decision of the provider if they will allow their content in various countries, and on what platforms. The fact that you have many providers available is great to hear, but it has nothing to do with HBO's decision to not permit their app on Roku devices somewhere. Roku themselves have no control of app/channel availability in different countries. It's under the sole control of the channel developers, and Roku cannot alter what those developers have set.

[lgyorvari]

I understood at first that HBO had the decision. I wrote that I would bombard them (HBO, MAX or whatever they call themself now) with the request.

I think all EU countries are affected. 

I suspect they (HBO) simply consider Roku a marginal platform in EU and it wasn't worth 2 clicks for them to remove the regional restriction at the starting date.