21 ms·

HBO is finally going to let you watch its shows without cable

221 points by Deinos 12y ago

untothebreach 12y ago
I ditched cable a while ago, but wasn't willing to give up watching some HBO shows, so I convinced myself that pirating them was 'ok,' since that was 'the only for me to get them.' I later realized that my attitude was hypocritical, that I just wanted to have my cake and eat it too. I stopped pirating their shows then, and have definitely missed some of them. So I am excited about this, and will subscribe as soon as it is available. I'll get to catch up on Game of Thrones now!
- HelloMcFly 12y ago
  I've found that it's not terribly difficult to wait for the shows to come to Amazon Instant. For a bit I pirated premium channel content on release and bought it on Amazon Instant after the fact. I eventually realized that waiting really didn't impact my enjoyment. I do still supplement my NBA League Pass with viewing of unauthorized streams for games that are not aired on League Pass.
  - chc 12y ago
    Game of Thrones season 4 is still not on Amazon in the US. I think that would impact my enjoyment, since part of the enjoyment is being able to talk to people about it. By the time I'd be able to watch it on there, they wouldn't even remember what happened that season.
    - HelloMcFly 12y ago
      I imagine you're right - GoT may be the only one I can think of like that for me, but I have the luxury of watching at a friend's house.
- NoMoreNicksLeft 12y ago
  I realized myself that copyrighted shows are supposed to enter the public domain eventually... meaning that HBO doesn't own them, it just (long term) leases them from the public. It also occurred to me that it, along with other big companies, were trying to bribe and cajole Congress into giving that property away forever, when it firmly belongs to the public. The public has decided to revoke their privilege. If Congress hasn't codified that revocation, then this is a problem with Congress and not with the public. Fuck em.
  - untothebreach 12y ago
    I don't really understand this attitude. HBO paid for the shows to be created, so how is it that the "public" owns it? Some members of the "public" pay HBO to watch the shows that HBO creates, but that doesn't mean that members of the public who don't pay for the shows have some kind of "right" to watch them.
    - NoMoreNicksLeft 12y ago
      > I don't really understand this attitude. HBO paid for the shows to be created So? It's real simple: copyright is not a fundamental human right. It is a privilege granted by the public to creators for specific purpose, and if the public feels that purpose is subverted, or even if they just are in a shitty mood, the privilege can and should be revoked. I don't understand your attitude. You seem to equate "people not paying" with theft, which sounds like something a small child would come up with. HBO hasn't paid me squat... are they stealing from me? >so how is it that the "public" owns it? This too is simple. If I own land, and I lease it to you for 75 years (you pay up front), who owns it? I do. You still do not own it. You can do (most) anything you want with the land, you can use it to make a profit by using that land... but at the end of 75 years, you still have to surrender that land back to me. Copyright works like this. Have you never heard of the goddamned public domain? What do you think that was, exactly? The public owns the work. The copyright holder only has a temporary interest in the work. It's like you've never bothered to think about any of this. You just swallow all the bullshit anyone shovels into your gullet.
uptown 12y ago
Seems like they're finally embracing the philosophy to fighting piracy from Kim Dotcom: How to stop piracy: 1. Create great content 2. Make it easy to buy 3. Same day global release 4. Works on any device 5. Fair price
- jessedhillon 12y ago
  Did you see something asserting point 4?
  - uptown 12y ago
    Maybe it won't work on your Android-powered toaster, but the devices they currently support are fairly comprehensive: http://www.hbogo.com/#devices/ http://www.hbogo.com/#devices/
    - bjelkeman-again 12y ago
      What is missing for me is Apple TV, but I suppose that cuts too deep into HBO's income.
      - balls187 12y ago
        Apple TV is supported by HBO Go.
      - maibaum 12y ago
        Apple TV supports HBO Go. https://www.apple.com/pr/library/2013/06/19HBO-GO-WatchESPN-Come-to-Apple-TV.html https://www.apple.com/pr/library/2013/06/19HBO-GO-WatchESPN-...
      - lanaius 12y ago
        It's not about just the device, it's about the device + provider; see PS3 and Comcast.
    - dec0dedab0de 12y ago
      if OpenELEC, or Wii U were on there I would sign up immediately.
DigitalSea 12y ago
It is about damn time. Welcome to the present, HBO. I am assuming this move is in part to the massively high piracy rate for Game of Thrones episodes. As an Australian resident with no real access to current episodes of Game of Thrones without getting cable TV, I hope they do come through on delivering the service overseas (especially Australia), because if the price is right, I will gladly pay for HD episodes of Game of Thrones (amongst other great HBO shows like True Detective).
- res0nat0r 12y ago
  I predict the price will be high enough that the next postings about this new service will be that HBO without a cable subscription is way too expensive...and the entire piracy discussion / justification will continue anew...
- paulannesley 12y ago
  > As an Australian resident with no real access to current episodes of Game of Thrones without getting cable TV … That's the same situation as USA. Australia actually briefly had it better than USA, with the AU iTunes store releasing HBO shows like GoT within a day or two of their USA cable release. But then HBO + Foxtel broke that.
antr 12y ago
What would really be groundbreaking is to allow non-US based viewers to subscribe to the service, without any type of geo fence. I would be happy to pay for the service as a European consumer. That would mean no more GoT torrenting for me.
- koyote 12y ago
  I wonder how much money they are making selling their content to foreign networks vs. the amount they could make opening their online service up globally. I am assuming that if they did open it up globally, they would not be able to sell the shows for as much money to other networks.
  - antr 12y ago
    I understand your comment, and you are probably right. I like to watch movies/tv shows in their original language, so not many would be open to pay to watch english only shows... I don't know.
    - icebraining 12y ago
      Here in Portugal, I'd say subtitles are still a must if you want to reach most of the market. The average HBO show viewer has certainly a better grasp of English than the average citizen, but probably not good enough to understand complex dialog. That said, subtitling from English is fairly cheap, especially at the current level of quality, so there's no reason to avoid it.
- bjelkeman-again 12y ago
  They have started, but yes, it is still geofenced. In Sweden we can use http://hbonordic.se/ http://hbonordic.se/
- tcas 12y ago
  From the article sounds like it will happen: This service will be offered in the United States and there are also plans to bring it overseas
- 12y ago
protonfish 12y ago
So all that stuff they were saying about how it was financially impossible to do this was just PR fabrication? I never would have suspected.
- jdmichal 12y ago
  It may very well have been financially impossible, if they had a contract in place preventing them from doing it. Circumstances change, contracts expire...
  - protonfish 12y ago
    I assure you that was not what they were saying. I have been trying to find the AMA some VP of HBO did on Reddit (basically as a response to this http://theoatmeal.com/comics/game_of_thrones http://theoatmeal.com/comics/game_of_thrones ) where they "explained" why they just simple cannot put their content online and the Redditors lapped it up.
- chc 12y ago
  I don't think "financially impossible" was the phrase they used. As far as I know, they simply seemed to feel it was disadvantageous at that time.
- wmf 12y ago
  I think the financials depend on the ratio of cable subscribers to cord cutters, and that ratio has been changing over time.
munificent 12y ago
RIP cable.
- op00to 12y ago
  I'm not so sure this is bad for cable companies. Until the cable companies are treated as common carriers, they will be free to pull whatever games they want to play against content providers, like leaving handoff links from transit providers overloaded.
jessedhillon 12y ago
So this only matters if the video stream can actually be delivered to your house with reasonably good bandwidth. I hope there isn't someone between your house and HBO's servers who has an interest in degrading that traffic!
- jonlucc 12y ago
  Perhaps they are offering this as an addition to ISP (as in, you can have HBOGo as an add-on to your Comcast internet plan).
- op00to 12y ago
  THIS. I predict the next big peering standoff to be between HBO and Verizon / Comcast based on these news. Looking at my HBO GO connection now, HBO seems to be getting bandwidth through Level3. I expect to see the same "congestion" shenanigans from the cable companies that we saw during the Netflix peering dustup.
wil421 12y ago
This has been pretty much the only reason I keep expensive cable services. The only thing that will keep me away is if the price is a lot more expensive than the $14 a month I a currently paying for HBO.
- ghshephard 12y ago
  The cheapest I was able to get HBO in Redwood City, California, was $72/month all in - and that was waiting for a bit over a year for their $20/month special. The cost of the Digital Cable was the thing that made it pricey (in addition to the basic cable service). Given that the only thing I wanted cable for was HBO, that meant I would be paying $72/month for HBO. A little rich. My over/under is probably around $30/month.
athenot 12y ago
Cable TV contracts are typically very long (5-7 years) so I'm wondering if this is partly due to some existing contract coming up for renegotiation. Anyhow, if HBO starts selling their content directly, that's going to give them some leverage for better terms with MSOs.
geophile 12y ago
HBO has enough good content that I keep subscribing to cable to get it. I have zero interest in sports (ESPN). So for me, this is the end of my cable subscription. This is the beginning of the end for cable. And hopefully also for propaganda stations like Fox News.
- kenrikm 12y ago
  "This is the beginning of the end for cable. And hopefully also for propaganda stations like Fox News and MSNBC." Fixed.
  - rowill 12y ago
    Huffington Post is the most-shared site on Facebook. Cable is not responsible for trash news, a lot of people eat it up.
cswhatt 12y ago
Just another example of leverage tipping more towards content generators. Good trend for consumers ultimately, bad for providers.
- r00fus 12y ago
  Definitely bad for the incumbent local-monopolized middlemen like Comcast/Verizon.
themoonbus 12y ago
Glad to hear it. For the time being, for anyone with Amazon Prime, the HBO collection isn't bad: http://www.amazon.com/b?node=9097393011 http://www.amazon.com/b?node=9097393011 It's not nearly as complete or up-to-date as HBO go of course, but it has lot of the most popular shows. We have HBO go and actually use Amazon prime to watch HBO shows since Comcast has yet to support logging into HBO go on PS3.
- thevdude 12y ago
  Spend the $35 and check out a chromecast. If I'm remembering properly, a friend with comcast had no issues shooting HBO go over to it.
  - themoonbus 12y ago
    Ah good advice, I will check it out.
- alex_doom 12y ago
  I didn't realize Prime had HBO shows, I guess I'll finally make some use of it.
daigoba66 12y ago
Now this just needs to happen with other TV networks. For example, I'd love to pay AMC Networks[0], A&E Networks[1], or NBC Universal[2] a nominal monthly fee to access their catalogs on-demand. While it's true that these networks stream some of their current shows online, the players and streaming experience is usually very terrible. That's how I want to the future to be: everything is like Netflix or HBO-sans-cable. Maybe even eliminate, or at least reduce commercials. And it's not exactly a-la-carte, because most channels aren't individual networks. And most shows are perfectly suited for on-demand viewing. There are very few things I watch that are actually "broadcast" live (news and sports are pretty much it). All I'm suggesting is that we bypass the cable companies and pay the publishers directly for content. I'd pay good money to an Internet Service Provider who gives me a fast and stable connection to the publisher's servers. The flip side of all this choice is that it's no longer dead-simple for consumers. It sure is convenient to simply pay Comcast $100 a month and they take care of getting all of these networks and publishers into my home in one box with one remote control. Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon apps are fairly ubiquitous on pretty much every platform including built right into many TVs. I doubt traditional TV networks want to invest in that technology. [0] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AMC_Networks http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AMC_Networks [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A%26E_Networks http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A%26E_Networks [2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NBCUniversal_Cable http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NBCUniversal_Cable
- bkeroack 12y ago
  The aggregate of all these fees (plus Netflix, Amazon, etc) will likely approach or exceed the cost of a typical cable subscription.
  - deleted 12y ago
    [deleted]
  - dragonwriter 12y ago
    > The aggregate of all these fees (plus Netflix, Amazon, etc) will likely approach or exceed the cost of a typical cable subscription. The single-service cost of any one of the most popular services will likely approach or exceed the cost of a typical cable subscription while providing far less (but more focussed) content.
rogerbinns 12y ago
Hopefully they will decide not to be yet another island and also work with Netflix. I'd be perfectly happy paying the subscription fee to Netflix and being able to see the content through the existing Netflix apps I have everywhere.
- eric_cc 12y ago
  Hopefully they DO decide to be yet another island. Otherwise, services like Netflix will turn into cable. I have no problem using AppleTV/Roku browsing to the service I want.
  - Tloewald 12y ago
    I do wish AppleTV had federated search. Well, maybe it will tomorrow.
    - matthewmcg 12y ago
      Yes, the timing of this news the day before the Apple event is...interesting.
  - rogerbinns 12y ago
    Note that I am not suggesting they only go via Netflix, only that it also be an option. The content is the important bit, so providing it widely works. There is far less friction making it available via existing mechanisms in addition to direct.
emacdona 12y ago
This is really great news for me (I "cut the cable" a couple of years ago). I was thrilled when HBO released a lot of content on Amazon Prime. I've been buying content they haven't released on Prime through Amazon streaming (Silicon Valley, Game of Thrones). I have been anxiously awaiting the day where I could buy a "season pass" for current run HBO content. I've concluded there were a few benefits HBO got from their close relationship with cable companies: 1) The huge customer base that cable companies have 2) The advertising that cable companies provide 3) The distribution of content that cable companies provide I always felt the release of content to Amazon Prime was an experiment and judging by this news, I think that experiment was deemed a success. I suspect that HBO concluded that Amazon is more than capable of distributing the content and that there are plenty of customers willing to pay for it when it's delivered by a means other than the cable company. I still suspect that Amazon will play a role in hosting and distributing content for whatever "HBO Go" becomes one year from now.
Mankhool 12y ago
What about Canada? I'd subscribe in a second as we too, are cord cutters up here.
- orbitur 12y ago
  Bell owns the rights to the HBO name here, and currently bundles HBOGO (and HBO content) under TMNGO. You currently need to be a subscriber on one of their "approved" TV providers to access it, like HBOGO. Now Bell will likely make some concessions to prevent complete Canadian public outrage, but whatever the US gets, I'm sure the Canadian version will have a few drawbacks added to the existing ones in the US service.
- tjradcliffe 12y ago
  Wouldn't it be nice. As a Canadian who hasn't had cable for a decade, every six months or so I check on options. I subscribed to Netflix when we got it here, and it's cheap and good, but I'd love to be able to access HBO and other movie content. I tried to find a legal download of Bladerunner the other day, and got the following: 1) Amazon.com geofenced it 2) Google Play won't let me download it (I have "bought" movies on Google Play before, but like any digital play-for-now service they will eventually become unavailable to me: I will no longer buy digital content I can't rip to an open format, because temporary proprietary access is not what I'm looking for.) 3) iTunes doesn't have it 4) Amazon.ca doesn't do digital downloads of films, near as I can tell. They certainly didn't have the one I was looking for. All I want to be able to do is pay for a legal digital copy of a film, and I can't. I can buy a piece of plastic with the bits burned into it that I have no device to play, but that's a ridiculous waste. I didn't torrent the film... I just ended up saying, "Screw it. No sale for me." Business 101: make it easy for customers to give you money. This is something that digital streaming companies (other than Netflix) have not mastered.
LordKano 12y ago
I would have cut my cable years ago if I could have gotten current episodes of True Blood and The Walking Dead through streaming services. This is a step in the right direction. Comcast and Verizon must be quaking in their boots because as more networks decide to go the direct distribution route, the less necessary their TV distribution services will become.
pasbesoin 12y ago
I've spent the last 5+ years using subscription models. I'm about done with them. Disappearing content. Inconvenient or no access at times and places. Increasingly feeling I've been funding the very "editing" and abuse I've wanted to escape. My personal conclusion is that the money would have been better spent just gradually building up my own library. And, were it closer, in supporting my local library. In other words: Too little, too late, for me.
hoopism 12y ago
I cut the cord 3 years ago and regularly pay 2 dollars an episode for shows I want to watch. I own several rokus and pay for prime, hulu (occasionally) and netflix (occasionally). I have never been happier with my tv/media consumption. Hulu is the only thing I would like to replace... I have no tolerance for ads... I'd pay more to get rid of them. I don't know how anyone watches regular tv (unless it's with a DVR).
- ryanSrich 12y ago
  This. I actually had an idea for producing a product that gave users truly commercial free cable (the way it was actually intended to function in the first place).But considering the nature of that market the only real way to make it work, at least based on my cursory research, is to become the content provider (much like what Netflix is doing).

221 points by Deinos 12y ago

I ditched cable a while ago, but wasn't willing to give up watching some HBO shows, so I convinced myself that pirating them was 'ok,' since that was 'the only for me to get them.' I later realized that my attitude was hypocritical, that I just wanted to have my cake and eat it too. I stopped pirating their shows then, and have definitely missed some of them. So I am excited about this, and will subscribe as soon as it is available. I'll get to catch up on Game of Thrones now!

HelloMcFly 12y ago
I've found that it's not terribly difficult to wait for the shows to come to Amazon Instant. For a bit I pirated premium channel content on release and bought it on Amazon Instant after the fact. I eventually realized that waiting really didn't impact my enjoyment. I do still supplement my NBA League Pass with viewing of unauthorized streams for games that are not aired on League Pass.
- chc 12y ago
  Game of Thrones season 4 is still not on Amazon in the US. I think that would impact my enjoyment, since part of the enjoyment is being able to talk to people about it. By the time I'd be able to watch it on there, they wouldn't even remember what happened that season.
  - HelloMcFly 12y ago
    I imagine you're right - GoT may be the only one I can think of like that for me, but I have the luxury of watching at a friend's house.
NoMoreNicksLeft 12y ago
I realized myself that copyrighted shows are supposed to enter the public domain eventually... meaning that HBO doesn't own them, it just (long term) leases them from the public. It also occurred to me that it, along with other big companies, were trying to bribe and cajole Congress into giving that property away forever, when it firmly belongs to the public. The public has decided to revoke their privilege. If Congress hasn't codified that revocation, then this is a problem with Congress and not with the public. Fuck em.
- untothebreach 12y ago
  I don't really understand this attitude. HBO paid for the shows to be created, so how is it that the "public" owns it? Some members of the "public" pay HBO to watch the shows that HBO creates, but that doesn't mean that members of the public who don't pay for the shows have some kind of "right" to watch them.
  - NoMoreNicksLeft 12y ago
    > I don't really understand this attitude. HBO paid for the shows to be created So? It's real simple: copyright is not a fundamental human right. It is a privilege granted by the public to creators for specific purpose, and if the public feels that purpose is subverted, or even if they just are in a shitty mood, the privilege can and should be revoked. I don't understand your attitude. You seem to equate "people not paying" with theft, which sounds like something a small child would come up with. HBO hasn't paid me squat... are they stealing from me? >so how is it that the "public" owns it? This too is simple. If I own land, and I lease it to you for 75 years (you pay up front), who owns it? I do. You still do not own it. You can do (most) anything you want with the land, you can use it to make a profit by using that land... but at the end of 75 years, you still have to surrender that land back to me. Copyright works like this. Have you never heard of the goddamned public domain? What do you think that was, exactly? The public owns the work. The copyright holder only has a temporary interest in the work. It's like you've never bothered to think about any of this. You just swallow all the bullshit anyone shovels into your gullet.

uptown 12y ago

Seems like they're finally embracing the philosophy to fighting piracy from Kim Dotcom: How to stop piracy: 1. Create great content 2. Make it easy to buy 3. Same day global release 4. Works on any device 5. Fair price

jessedhillon 12y ago
Did you see something asserting point 4?
- uptown 12y ago
  Maybe it won't work on your Android-powered toaster, but the devices they currently support are fairly comprehensive: http://www.hbogo.com/#devices/ http://www.hbogo.com/#devices/
  - bjelkeman-again 12y ago
    What is missing for me is Apple TV, but I suppose that cuts too deep into HBO's income.
    - balls187 12y ago
      Apple TV is supported by HBO Go.
    - maibaum 12y ago
      Apple TV supports HBO Go. https://www.apple.com/pr/library/2013/06/19HBO-GO-WatchESPN-Come-to-Apple-TV.html https://www.apple.com/pr/library/2013/06/19HBO-GO-WatchESPN-...
    - lanaius 12y ago
      It's not about just the device, it's about the device + provider; see PS3 and Comcast.
  - dec0dedab0de 12y ago
    if OpenELEC, or Wii U were on there I would sign up immediately.

DigitalSea 12y ago

It is about damn time. Welcome to the present, HBO. I am assuming this move is in part to the massively high piracy rate for Game of Thrones episodes. As an Australian resident with no real access to current episodes of Game of Thrones without getting cable TV, I hope they do come through on delivering the service overseas (especially Australia), because if the price is right, I will gladly pay for HD episodes of Game of Thrones (amongst other great HBO shows like True Detective).

res0nat0r 12y ago
I predict the price will be high enough that the next postings about this new service will be that HBO without a cable subscription is way too expensive...and the entire piracy discussion / justification will continue anew...
paulannesley 12y ago
> As an Australian resident with no real access to current episodes of Game of Thrones without getting cable TV … That's the same situation as USA. Australia actually briefly had it better than USA, with the AU iTunes store releasing HBO shows like GoT within a day or two of their USA cable release. But then HBO + Foxtel broke that.

antr 12y ago

What would really be groundbreaking is to allow non-US based viewers to subscribe to the service, without any type of geo fence. I would be happy to pay for the service as a European consumer. That would mean no more GoT torrenting for me.

koyote 12y ago
I wonder how much money they are making selling their content to foreign networks vs. the amount they could make opening their online service up globally. I am assuming that if they did open it up globally, they would not be able to sell the shows for as much money to other networks.
- antr 12y ago
  I understand your comment, and you are probably right. I like to watch movies/tv shows in their original language, so not many would be open to pay to watch english only shows... I don't know.
  - icebraining 12y ago
    Here in Portugal, I'd say subtitles are still a must if you want to reach most of the market. The average HBO show viewer has certainly a better grasp of English than the average citizen, but probably not good enough to understand complex dialog. That said, subtitling from English is fairly cheap, especially at the current level of quality, so there's no reason to avoid it.
bjelkeman-again 12y ago
They have started, but yes, it is still geofenced. In Sweden we can use http://hbonordic.se/ http://hbonordic.se/
tcas 12y ago
From the article sounds like it will happen: This service will be offered in the United States and there are also plans to bring it overseas
12y ago

protonfish 12y ago

So all that stuff they were saying about how it was financially impossible to do this was just PR fabrication? I never would have suspected.

jdmichal 12y ago
It may very well have been financially impossible, if they had a contract in place preventing them from doing it. Circumstances change, contracts expire...
- protonfish 12y ago
  I assure you that was not what they were saying. I have been trying to find the AMA some VP of HBO did on Reddit (basically as a response to this http://theoatmeal.com/comics/game_of_thrones http://theoatmeal.com/comics/game_of_thrones ) where they "explained" why they just simple cannot put their content online and the Redditors lapped it up.
chc 12y ago
I don't think "financially impossible" was the phrase they used. As far as I know, they simply seemed to feel it was disadvantageous at that time.
wmf 12y ago
I think the financials depend on the ratio of cable subscribers to cord cutters, and that ratio has been changing over time.

munificent 12y ago

RIP cable.

op00to 12y ago
I'm not so sure this is bad for cable companies. Until the cable companies are treated as common carriers, they will be free to pull whatever games they want to play against content providers, like leaving handoff links from transit providers overloaded.

jessedhillon 12y ago

So this only matters if the video stream can actually be delivered to your house with reasonably good bandwidth. I hope there isn't someone between your house and HBO's servers who has an interest in degrading that traffic!

jonlucc 12y ago
Perhaps they are offering this as an addition to ISP (as in, you can have HBOGo as an add-on to your Comcast internet plan).
op00to 12y ago
THIS. I predict the next big peering standoff to be between HBO and Verizon / Comcast based on these news. Looking at my HBO GO connection now, HBO seems to be getting bandwidth through Level3. I expect to see the same "congestion" shenanigans from the cable companies that we saw during the Netflix peering dustup.

wil421 12y ago

This has been pretty much the only reason I keep expensive cable services. The only thing that will keep me away is if the price is a lot more expensive than the $14 a month I a currently paying for HBO.

ghshephard 12y ago
The cheapest I was able to get HBO in Redwood City, California, was $72/month all in - and that was waiting for a bit over a year for their $20/month special. The cost of the Digital Cable was the thing that made it pricey (in addition to the basic cable service). Given that the only thing I wanted cable for was HBO, that meant I would be paying $72/month for HBO. A little rich. My over/under is probably around $30/month.

athenot 12y ago

Cable TV contracts are typically very long (5-7 years) so I'm wondering if this is partly due to some existing contract coming up for renegotiation. Anyhow, if HBO starts selling their content directly, that's going to give them some leverage for better terms with MSOs.

geophile 12y ago

HBO has enough good content that I keep subscribing to cable to get it. I have zero interest in sports (ESPN). So for me, this is the end of my cable subscription. This is the beginning of the end for cable. And hopefully also for propaganda stations like Fox News.

kenrikm 12y ago
"This is the beginning of the end for cable. And hopefully also for propaganda stations like Fox News and MSNBC." Fixed.
- rowill 12y ago
  Huffington Post is the most-shared site on Facebook. Cable is not responsible for trash news, a lot of people eat it up.

cswhatt 12y ago

Just another example of leverage tipping more towards content generators. Good trend for consumers ultimately, bad for providers.

r00fus 12y ago
Definitely bad for the incumbent local-monopolized middlemen like Comcast/Verizon.

themoonbus 12y ago

Glad to hear it. For the time being, for anyone with Amazon Prime, the HBO collection isn't bad: http://www.amazon.com/b?node=9097393011 http://www.amazon.com/b?node=9097393011 It's not nearly as complete or up-to-date as HBO go of course, but it has lot of the most popular shows. We have HBO go and actually use Amazon prime to watch HBO shows since Comcast has yet to support logging into HBO go on PS3.

thevdude 12y ago
Spend the $35 and check out a chromecast. If I'm remembering properly, a friend with comcast had no issues shooting HBO go over to it.
- themoonbus 12y ago
  Ah good advice, I will check it out.
alex_doom 12y ago
I didn't realize Prime had HBO shows, I guess I'll finally make some use of it.

daigoba66 12y ago

Now this just needs to happen with other TV networks. For example, I'd love to pay AMC Networks[0], A&E Networks[1], or NBC Universal[2] a nominal monthly fee to access their catalogs on-demand. While it's true that these networks stream some of their current shows online, the players and streaming experience is usually very terrible. That's how I want to the future to be: everything is like Netflix or HBO-sans-cable. Maybe even eliminate, or at least reduce commercials. And it's not exactly a-la-carte, because most channels aren't individual networks. And most shows are perfectly suited for on-demand viewing. There are very few things I watch that are actually "broadcast" live (news and sports are pretty much it). All I'm suggesting is that we bypass the cable companies and pay the publishers directly for content. I'd pay good money to an Internet Service Provider who gives me a fast and stable connection to the publisher's servers. The flip side of all this choice is that it's no longer dead-simple for consumers. It sure is convenient to simply pay Comcast $100 a month and they take care of getting all of these networks and publishers into my home in one box with one remote control. Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon apps are fairly ubiquitous on pretty much every platform including built right into many TVs. I doubt traditional TV networks want to invest in that technology. [0] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AMC_Networks http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AMC_Networks [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A%26E_Networks http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A%26E_Networks [2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NBCUniversal_Cable http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NBCUniversal_Cable

bkeroack 12y ago
The aggregate of all these fees (plus Netflix, Amazon, etc) will likely approach or exceed the cost of a typical cable subscription.
- deleted 12y ago
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- dragonwriter 12y ago
  > The aggregate of all these fees (plus Netflix, Amazon, etc) will likely approach or exceed the cost of a typical cable subscription. The single-service cost of any one of the most popular services will likely approach or exceed the cost of a typical cable subscription while providing far less (but more focussed) content.

rogerbinns 12y ago

Hopefully they will decide not to be yet another island and also work with Netflix. I'd be perfectly happy paying the subscription fee to Netflix and being able to see the content through the existing Netflix apps I have everywhere.

eric_cc 12y ago
Hopefully they DO decide to be yet another island. Otherwise, services like Netflix will turn into cable. I have no problem using AppleTV/Roku browsing to the service I want.
- Tloewald 12y ago
  I do wish AppleTV had federated search. Well, maybe it will tomorrow.
  - matthewmcg 12y ago
    Yes, the timing of this news the day before the Apple event is...interesting.
- rogerbinns 12y ago
  Note that I am not suggesting they only go via Netflix, only that it also be an option. The content is the important bit, so providing it widely works. There is far less friction making it available via existing mechanisms in addition to direct.

emacdona 12y ago

This is really great news for me (I "cut the cable" a couple of years ago). I was thrilled when HBO released a lot of content on Amazon Prime. I've been buying content they haven't released on Prime through Amazon streaming (Silicon Valley, Game of Thrones). I have been anxiously awaiting the day where I could buy a "season pass" for current run HBO content. I've concluded there were a few benefits HBO got from their close relationship with cable companies: 1) The huge customer base that cable companies have 2) The advertising that cable companies provide 3) The distribution of content that cable companies provide I always felt the release of content to Amazon Prime was an experiment and judging by this news, I think that experiment was deemed a success. I suspect that HBO concluded that Amazon is more than capable of distributing the content and that there are plenty of customers willing to pay for it when it's delivered by a means other than the cable company. I still suspect that Amazon will play a role in hosting and distributing content for whatever "HBO Go" becomes one year from now.

Mankhool 12y ago

What about Canada? I'd subscribe in a second as we too, are cord cutters up here.

orbitur 12y ago
Bell owns the rights to the HBO name here, and currently bundles HBOGO (and HBO content) under TMNGO. You currently need to be a subscriber on one of their "approved" TV providers to access it, like HBOGO. Now Bell will likely make some concessions to prevent complete Canadian public outrage, but whatever the US gets, I'm sure the Canadian version will have a few drawbacks added to the existing ones in the US service.
tjradcliffe 12y ago
Wouldn't it be nice. As a Canadian who hasn't had cable for a decade, every six months or so I check on options. I subscribed to Netflix when we got it here, and it's cheap and good, but I'd love to be able to access HBO and other movie content. I tried to find a legal download of Bladerunner the other day, and got the following: 1) Amazon.com geofenced it 2) Google Play won't let me download it (I have "bought" movies on Google Play before, but like any digital play-for-now service they will eventually become unavailable to me: I will no longer buy digital content I can't rip to an open format, because temporary proprietary access is not what I'm looking for.) 3) iTunes doesn't have it 4) Amazon.ca doesn't do digital downloads of films, near as I can tell. They certainly didn't have the one I was looking for. All I want to be able to do is pay for a legal digital copy of a film, and I can't. I can buy a piece of plastic with the bits burned into it that I have no device to play, but that's a ridiculous waste. I didn't torrent the film... I just ended up saying, "Screw it. No sale for me." Business 101: make it easy for customers to give you money. This is something that digital streaming companies (other than Netflix) have not mastered.

LordKano 12y ago

I would have cut my cable years ago if I could have gotten current episodes of True Blood and The Walking Dead through streaming services. This is a step in the right direction. Comcast and Verizon must be quaking in their boots because as more networks decide to go the direct distribution route, the less necessary their TV distribution services will become.

pasbesoin 12y ago

I've spent the last 5+ years using subscription models. I'm about done with them. Disappearing content. Inconvenient or no access at times and places. Increasingly feeling I've been funding the very "editing" and abuse I've wanted to escape. My personal conclusion is that the money would have been better spent just gradually building up my own library. And, were it closer, in supporting my local library. In other words: Too little, too late, for me.

hoopism 12y ago

I cut the cord 3 years ago and regularly pay 2 dollars an episode for shows I want to watch. I own several rokus and pay for prime, hulu (occasionally) and netflix (occasionally). I have never been happier with my tv/media consumption. Hulu is the only thing I would like to replace... I have no tolerance for ads... I'd pay more to get rid of them. I don't know how anyone watches regular tv (unless it's with a DVR).

ryanSrich 12y ago
This. I actually had an idea for producing a product that gave users truly commercial free cable (the way it was actually intended to function in the first place).But considering the nature of that market the only real way to make it work, at least based on my cursory research, is to become the content provider (much like what Netflix is doing).