I think the actual amount Amazon is paying HBO is now said to be $300 million over a three year period. I have no idea how much Amazon will charge Prime users for these shows, but you can bet they won't be free. That is, the Prime membership won't cover these shows. The Amazon Prime membership is worth the money if you ship a lot of stuff, but it is worthless for Prime video. Nearly every show that Amazon has available for streaming will cost you a small fortune to stream, especially if you stream it in HD quality. I have a Prime membership for the shipping, but I rarely use their rip off video streaming. The only things worth streaming are the freebies, and those are few and far between. Everything else is way over priced.