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Their strategy is smart and reasonable if people perceived HBO as delivering great shows that are worth paying extra useless channels to get, which I don't thin

Their strategy is smart and reasonable if people perceived HBO as delivering great shows that are worth paying extra useless channels to get, which I don't think it is (but I'm french and not very exposed to their marketing ). I fear that HBO is living in the Bubble of their Brand like so many companies, thinking they are the best thing ever and that customers should be grateful whatever way they accept to provide stuff. There is a trend toward simpler deals now where you pay for what you want, not for 3, 4 goodies you never asked.

jan_g 14y ago
I think that HBO is the best part of my TV subscription. They offer unlimited viewing of their content for flat rate (10EUR/month). Included is also web streaming (HBO GO), so that I can (and do) watch the movies on various computers in the house. Compare this to various 'online movie rentals', where I'd have to pay 2EUR/movie.
- chc 14y ago
  Yeah, it costs that little if you're already paying through the nose for a cable plan. If you're not, you have to pay for a cable plan just to get HBO GO, so it works out to something like $120 a month. You'd have to watch a lot of movies to approach the actual cost of HBO.
  - jan_g 14y ago
    But I'd have cable or iptv subscription in any case. HBO or not. Being without tv is a no-go scenario in our family. Besides, the cost is nowhere near $120. I pay to my provider 35EUR for 20/20 internet access + 10EUR for iptv + 10EUR for HBO. So the tv part of my monthly bill is 20EUR.
    - nextparadigms 14y ago
      I think the HBO situation is better in Europe, probably because they were not so hyped in Europe, and they and not that many people are using it.
dasil003 14y ago
HBO is the best thing ever in TV. Over the past 15 years they have raised the bar of television, and the corpus of television programming they have produced is qualitatively unequaled by anyone. How the affiliates choose to market and distribute HBO is not really their concern. As long as they are delivering them tens of millions of subscribers and HBO doesn't have to lift a finger for sales, marketing or distribution then it's going to be very hard for the Internet to equal that. It may well be that cable will be disrupted, and consumers will be unwilling to pay the type of premium that HBO requires, and that quality of television programming will go the way of the dodo, but there's no reason to believe that HBO would benefit from hastening that demise.

jan_g 14y ago

I think that HBO is the best part of my TV subscription. They offer unlimited viewing of their content for flat rate (10EUR/month). Included is also web streaming (HBO GO), so that I can (and do) watch the movies on various computers in the house. Compare this to various 'online movie rentals', where I'd have to pay 2EUR/movie.

chc 14y ago
Yeah, it costs that little if you're already paying through the nose for a cable plan. If you're not, you have to pay for a cable plan just to get HBO GO, so it works out to something like $120 a month. You'd have to watch a lot of movies to approach the actual cost of HBO.
- jan_g 14y ago
  But I'd have cable or iptv subscription in any case. HBO or not. Being without tv is a no-go scenario in our family. Besides, the cost is nowhere near $120. I pay to my provider 35EUR for 20/20 internet access + 10EUR for iptv + 10EUR for HBO. So the tv part of my monthly bill is 20EUR.
  - nextparadigms 14y ago
    I think the HBO situation is better in Europe, probably because they were not so hyped in Europe, and they and not that many people are using it.

dasil003 14y ago

HBO is the best thing ever in TV. Over the past 15 years they have raised the bar of television, and the corpus of television programming they have produced is qualitatively unequaled by anyone. How the affiliates choose to market and distribute HBO is not really their concern. As long as they are delivering them tens of millions of subscribers and HBO doesn't have to lift a finger for sales, marketing or distribution then it's going to be very hard for the Internet to equal that. It may well be that cable will be disrupted, and consumers will be unwilling to pay the type of premium that HBO requires, and that quality of television programming will go the way of the dodo, but there's no reason to believe that HBO would benefit from hastening that demise.