Millions of HBO Max users who subscribed through Amazon can do so again, a year after they were booted from the platform

• HBO Max is back on Amazon's Prime Video Channels.
• WarnerMedia removed the service last year because it wanted customers to subscribe directly through the app.
• The change comes after WarnerMedia merged with Discovery earlier this year.

If you want to subscribe to HBO Max through Amazon, you're in luck.

Warner Bros. Discovery announced on Tuesday that its streaming service is back on Amazon's Prime Video Channels a year after it was removed — booting millions of HBO Max customers off the platform.

The Channels platform allows users to subscribe to a streaming service through their Prime Video membership. But WarnerMedia, HBO's former parent company, wanted customers to access HBO Max directly through the app, rather than through a third party. The move left millions of customers without a subscription.

WarnerMedia tried luring those customers back, including by offering a 50% discount for subscribers who had been subscribed through Channels.

"It's important for us to own the customer," the former head of HBO Max, Andy Forssell, told Bloomberg in August 2021. "If the viewer is in the app, we can tailor the home page to them. We can tailor what they show them next. We can respond to that in real time."

The change in strategy to bring HBO Max back to Amazon comes after WarnerMedia merged with Discovery earlier this year to form Warner Bros. Discovery. Discovery's streaming service, Discovery+, is already available on Channels.

"Warner Bros. Discovery is committed to making HBO Max available to as broad an audience as possible while also advancing our data-driven approach to understanding our customers and best serving their viewing interests," Warner Bros. Discovery's revenue and strategy chief, Bruce Campbell, said in a statement.

HBO Max will cost $14.99 a month through Channels, the same price at which it is available to consumers via other distribution platforms.

HBO and HBO Max had 67.5 million combined subscribers, as of a July 2021 earnings report. 

Warner Bros. Discovery said during its most recent earnings report last month that HBO, HBO Max, and Discovery+ had a combined 95 million subscribers, but didn't break out the numbers by service.

The company plans to merge HBO Max and Discovery+ into one streaming platform next year.