5 ms·

The CEO of HBO is infuriating. I will never have a cable subscription ever again and it has nothing to do with the economy, yet I would love to be able to purch

The CEO of HBO is infuriating. I will never have a cable subscription ever again and it has nothing to do with the economy, yet I would love to be able to purchase HBO shows digitally. Game of Thrones? Still not even available on DVD, let alone iTunes, Amazon, or shit, even some crappy HBO run service. Have friends in the same situation who just gave up and pirated it. Perfect picture of an out of touch media executive.

serge2k 15y ago
I pirated it, but I also preordered the blu rays yesterday. i am willingto pay, but i want the flexibility of streaming or disks.
stricken 15y ago
What country are you in? I'm able to purchase all 10 episodes of Game of Thrones on iTunes in Australia.
- eridius 15y ago
  In the US, Game of Thrones won't be available on iTunes until March 6.
ghshephard 15y ago
Everyone I know who wanted to watch Game of thrones has torrented it. Many of them after checking iTunes first. DVDs are out for those who no longer have DVD Players (all the macbook Air types). Streaming is out for those who want to watch stuff remotely. Cable Format has to be the most useless delivery format I can conceive of - you have to: (A) Purchase Digital Cable, and then (B) Subscribe to HBO on top of that, and finally (C) Go through the hassle of tracking/converting all those shows into a watchable format. For the first time in my life, I can say with almost complete assurance, that the reason the majority of the people I know are torrenting, is because the rights owner isn't willing to sell in format that they want to watch it in. Don't call him out of Touch though - The reality, though, is that the CEO of HBO is a highly informed profit maximizing individual and the reason we don't get Game of Thrones on DVD/iTunes, is because of the huge revenue stream represented by the other 95% (99%?) of the population who is more than happy to Tivo GameOfThrones. He'll forego the 5% of us who won't purchase it on Cable, in order to make money on the other 95% The Reality is, that some percentage of that 5% would have Torrented it rather than paying the $50 for an iTunes season. They know how much they can make through iTunes, DVD Sales, and, most importantly, their Cable Customers (Comcast, etc...). And, if SOPA goes through, it will provide a platform for attacking the Torrents. First the entertainment industry will DNS blackhole "piratebay.org", then, when people avoiding that in numbers enough to matter, they will pass SOPA Part II, and start blackholing IP addresses. SOPA Part III will come out once people figure some way of connecting to dynamically assigned IP addresses. It will be a legislative game of Cat-and-Mouse driven by the massive $$$ that the entertainment industry is paying the lobbyists.
- absconditus 15y ago
  What in the world do they stand to lose by offering Game of Thrones through iTunes or Amazon in a reasonable amount of time? iTunes is already selling it even though it will not actually be available until March. None of us who are waiting for it are going to subscribe to cable in the meantime.
  - andylei 15y ago
    they are afraid that people will cancel their HBO subscriptions and buy just the shows they watch
    - Steko 15y ago
      It's half this and half that they want to convert DVD buyers to subscribers so they come out with the DVDs a month before the new season starts. The market for the DVDs is still good (True Blood S3 was the #1 TV show DVD for 2011) and I'm sure they're research tells them they get more from conversions then they lose in DVD sales by opening it up 2 months earlier. And if they started selling DVDs 6 months earlier they'd lose current subscribers like you say.
  - AJ007 15y ago
    I moved this summer. I still haven't resumed cable service. Netflix, iTunes, Amazon Prime, and Hulu are more than enough for me. The only reason I'd resume cable service, incidentally, would be for Game of Thrones season 2. Since I travel so much its likely I would just wait for other options. I don't download torrents. HBO is a golden goose. Its an exception. They produce exceptionally high quality shows. The things that will work for HBO won't work for the other guys. HBO may be able to sell subscriptions directly to users. Their HBO Go app is exceptional, better than Netflix's to a degree. When I travel and sit in a hotel room I wonder why any of us ever paid for this garbage. The amount of advertising sandwiched in to amateur level programming is akin to a 1998 porn site full of pop ups. Its not pretty. Golden geese can become arrogant. If I owned a cable company, any exec who blamed the economy on a drop in subscriptions would be immediately fired. Home Box Office, Inc is owned by Time Warner. Because of that, I have a feeling the golden goose will ultimately end up going down with the ship it is caged in.

serge2k 15y ago

I pirated it, but I also preordered the blu rays yesterday. i am willingto pay, but i want the flexibility of streaming or disks.

stricken 15y ago

What country are you in? I'm able to purchase all 10 episodes of Game of Thrones on iTunes in Australia.

eridius 15y ago
In the US, Game of Thrones won't be available on iTunes until March 6.

ghshephard 15y ago

Everyone I know who wanted to watch Game of thrones has torrented it. Many of them after checking iTunes first. DVDs are out for those who no longer have DVD Players (all the macbook Air types). Streaming is out for those who want to watch stuff remotely. Cable Format has to be the most useless delivery format I can conceive of - you have to: (A) Purchase Digital Cable, and then (B) Subscribe to HBO on top of that, and finally (C) Go through the hassle of tracking/converting all those shows into a watchable format. For the first time in my life, I can say with almost complete assurance, that the reason the majority of the people I know are torrenting, is because the rights owner isn't willing to sell in format that they want to watch it in. Don't call him out of Touch though - The reality, though, is that the CEO of HBO is a highly informed profit maximizing individual and the reason we don't get Game of Thrones on DVD/iTunes, is because of the huge revenue stream represented by the other 95% (99%?) of the population who is more than happy to Tivo GameOfThrones. He'll forego the 5% of us who won't purchase it on Cable, in order to make money on the other 95% The Reality is, that some percentage of that 5% would have Torrented it rather than paying the $50 for an iTunes season. They know how much they can make through iTunes, DVD Sales, and, most importantly, their Cable Customers (Comcast, etc...). And, if SOPA goes through, it will provide a platform for attacking the Torrents. First the entertainment industry will DNS blackhole "piratebay.org", then, when people avoiding that in numbers enough to matter, they will pass SOPA Part II, and start blackholing IP addresses. SOPA Part III will come out once people figure some way of connecting to dynamically assigned IP addresses. It will be a legislative game of Cat-and-Mouse driven by the massive $$$ that the entertainment industry is paying the lobbyists.

absconditus 15y ago
What in the world do they stand to lose by offering Game of Thrones through iTunes or Amazon in a reasonable amount of time? iTunes is already selling it even though it will not actually be available until March. None of us who are waiting for it are going to subscribe to cable in the meantime.
- andylei 15y ago
  they are afraid that people will cancel their HBO subscriptions and buy just the shows they watch
  - Steko 15y ago
    It's half this and half that they want to convert DVD buyers to subscribers so they come out with the DVDs a month before the new season starts. The market for the DVDs is still good (True Blood S3 was the #1 TV show DVD for 2011) and I'm sure they're research tells them they get more from conversions then they lose in DVD sales by opening it up 2 months earlier. And if they started selling DVDs 6 months earlier they'd lose current subscribers like you say.
- AJ007 15y ago
  I moved this summer. I still haven't resumed cable service. Netflix, iTunes, Amazon Prime, and Hulu are more than enough for me. The only reason I'd resume cable service, incidentally, would be for Game of Thrones season 2. Since I travel so much its likely I would just wait for other options. I don't download torrents. HBO is a golden goose. Its an exception. They produce exceptionally high quality shows. The things that will work for HBO won't work for the other guys. HBO may be able to sell subscriptions directly to users. Their HBO Go app is exceptional, better than Netflix's to a degree. When I travel and sit in a hotel room I wonder why any of us ever paid for this garbage. The amount of advertising sandwiched in to amateur level programming is akin to a 1998 porn site full of pop ups. Its not pretty. Golden geese can become arrogant. If I owned a cable company, any exec who blamed the economy on a drop in subscriptions would be immediately fired. Home Box Office, Inc is owned by Time Warner. Because of that, I have a feeling the golden goose will ultimately end up going down with the ship it is caged in.