Tonight SiliconDust announced that Amazon has demanded it remove their live TV streaming service HDHomeRun Premium TV service from Amazon Fire TV devices. It seems that Amazon wants SiliconDust to do this before they would allow the HDHomeRun app back on the Fire TV app store.
A few weeks ago, Amazon removed the HDHomeRun app from the Amazon Fire TV App Store. If you already had the app installed, you still had access to it. Now, SiliconDust is removing the ability to access their live TV streaming service, HDHomeRun Premium TV.
In a statement posted on the SiliconDust forums a SiliconDust employee said:
Following a demand from Amazon, Premium TV channels are no longer available on FireTV devices.
If you already have the HDHomeRun app installed you may see the Premium TV channels listed without guide data the first time you run the app today. Restarting the app will fix this situation and the Premium TV channels will no longer be displayed.
In a now-deleted tweet, SiliconDust said that this should mean the HDHomeRun app will be returning to the Fire TV app store:
This all comes a few weeks after a group of content owners, including Disney and HBO sued Omniverse; the company that powers HDHomeRun Premium TV. In the lawsuit, Disney and others argue that Omniverse does not have the right to sell access to their content through services like the HDHomeRun Premium TV.
Omniverse has argued that they do have the rights to sell this content and services like HDHomeRun have continued to resell Omniverse’s live TV streaming services under their HDHomeRun Premium TV brand pending the outcome of the lawsuit. Now, it seems that SiliconDust has decided on the Fire TV to remove access to their live TV streaming services, likely in an effort to once again be able to have their app on the Fire TV so they can still sell their OTA DVR.
Update: SiliconDust has confirmed to Cord Cutters News that an updated version of its app is pending review by Amazon.
Did you notice your HDHomeRun Premium TV service was removed on the Fire TV? Leave us a comment and let us know.
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