10 ms·

Yes, this is the point that needs to be made every time someone rages at HBO. It's not that they are doing this despite fans "wanting them to take their money",

Yes, this is the point that needs to be made every time someone rages at HBO. It's not that they are doing this despite fans "wanting them to take their money", it's that cable partners have made it financially unreasonable for HBO to split from them.

subsystem 14y ago
They are about to launch a video-on-demand service in the nordic countries, but with 12 months commitment and 3 months notice, so they seem quite capable of screwing up themselves.
- 1123581321 14y ago
  I expect HBO will eventually be bought by or strike a huge deal with Netflix or Amazon.com to get them over the cable companies' deterrents.
  - mistercheese 14y ago
    I suspect if Netflix had the money to make it worth HBO's splitting from cable companies it would have happened when they were looking for content channels. I'm not sure if this is in Amazon's core business either.
    - 1123581321 14y ago
      It is true that acquisition is unlikely, but licensing is different. I think Netflix has to choose their deals carefully and in the right order. Disney is their biggest deal yet. HBO would be bigger, but next year, it might be manageable. They already did the StarzPlay deal which brought shows to Netflix the day after airing on Starz, and Starz is a poorer version of HBO. Starz didn't renew, which makes the value of the arrangement look low, but it's possible HBO intends to learn from that in their future deal. Amazon's Prime Instant is a direct Netflix competitor and they pursue licenses just as aggressively. They are even publiahing original content, which is not their core competency but certainly is HBO's.
baddox 14y ago
HBO can hardly blame cable companies just because HBO's crappy business model doesn't work without cable companies.
- mistercheese 14y ago
  Maybe I'm giving them too much credit, but I'm assuming they made the business calculations and the partnerships with the cable companies was much more profitable than splitting off and doing HBO GO on their own, at least in the regions that they are tied to. (Cable cutters are still a small portion of the population)

subsystem 14y ago

They are about to launch a video-on-demand service in the nordic countries, but with 12 months commitment and 3 months notice, so they seem quite capable of screwing up themselves.

1123581321 14y ago
I expect HBO will eventually be bought by or strike a huge deal with Netflix or Amazon.com to get them over the cable companies' deterrents.
- mistercheese 14y ago
  I suspect if Netflix had the money to make it worth HBO's splitting from cable companies it would have happened when they were looking for content channels. I'm not sure if this is in Amazon's core business either.
  - 1123581321 14y ago
    It is true that acquisition is unlikely, but licensing is different. I think Netflix has to choose their deals carefully and in the right order. Disney is their biggest deal yet. HBO would be bigger, but next year, it might be manageable. They already did the StarzPlay deal which brought shows to Netflix the day after airing on Starz, and Starz is a poorer version of HBO. Starz didn't renew, which makes the value of the arrangement look low, but it's possible HBO intends to learn from that in their future deal. Amazon's Prime Instant is a direct Netflix competitor and they pursue licenses just as aggressively. They are even publiahing original content, which is not their core competency but certainly is HBO's.

baddox 14y ago

HBO can hardly blame cable companies just because HBO's crappy business model doesn't work without cable companies.

mistercheese 14y ago
Maybe I'm giving them too much credit, but I'm assuming they made the business calculations and the partnerships with the cable companies was much more profitable than splitting off and doing HBO GO on their own, at least in the regions that they are tied to. (Cable cutters are still a small portion of the population)