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Roku finally secures HBO Go and Showtime for Comcast subscribers

Roku finally secures HBO Go and Showtime for Comcast subscribers

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The deal's done but the start date is still unknown

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Roku is the latest streaming service playing fill-in-the-blanks with its video content. An FCC filing reveals that the company has finally secured a deal with Comcast to allow subscribers of the world’s largest cable company access to HBO Go and Showtime on Roku’s devices.

The document was spotted by Recode and states that while Comcast has condescended to "authenticate" these two apps in a deal on November 25th, there’s no explicit start date for when the content will be up and running.

Roku has made a deal with Comcast but Amazon still hasn't

And while Roku has managed to convince Comcast (or just capitulated to its terms), rival firms have been less successful. Amazon announced this week that it too had secured access to HBO Go for its Fire TV device before adding that Comcast and Charter subscribers would still be locked out.

Although these legacy providers are apparently indifferent to the pain they’re causing customers, the current glut of streaming devices on the market means that by 2015 more and more people will be demanding easy access to shows they already pay for. Hopefully, Comcast can't pretend to be deaf to this demand for much longer.