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HBO To Offer Online Streaming Without TV Subscription

Posted by samzenpus on from the cutting-the-cord dept.

An anonymous reader writes By now, everyone not living in total isolation knows that HBO has announced plans to offer content streaming in 2015 with no TV subscription requirements. Many wonder what took HBO so long to make this transition. Some speculate that the growing unpopularity of ISP giants has shifted bargaining power in HBO's favor. Others say that it's purely maths; there are more cord-cutters and more people willing to shell out money for specific content, as evidenced by Netflix surpassing HBO in earnings this year "despite Netflix having a smaller customer base". Whatever the reason, all are expecting this development to induce "more content providers to make their shows more readily available online".

4 of 139 comments (clear)

  1. Bad news for ESPN by craighansen · · Score: 4, Interesting

    This is bad news for ESPN, that gets several dollars out of every cable subscriber now.

    1. Re:Bad news for ESPN by TheGavster · · Score: 4, Interesting

      HBO's a-little-after-second-run movie lineup isn't why most people have it; it's the original programming. I think there's a big market for companies like HBO, AMC, etc to develop reputations based on a small number of high-quality shows. Online distribution makes it so they don't need to license a ton of filler, like AMC, or fill out a lineup with low-quality shows, like the big networks do.

      --
      "Because Science" is one step from "Because old book". Try "Because of my experiment testing my falsifiable assertion".
  2. I am not alone when I say.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

    IF they will give me episodes...
    1) On their TV release date.
    2) Of quality at least as good as cable feeds
    3) In a usable non-DRM container which doesn't require a web browser
    4) Charge no more than $5 per episode (even that is steep).

    Then, HBO will get my five bucks. Otherwise they get zero. It's just that simple and I still suspect people fail at both math and psychology if they can't get this right.

  3. Just in time! by MrEricSir · · Score: 3, Interesting

    And it's just in time for the end of net neutrality, so you can be sure your ISP will charge you a premium plan to access HBO online.

    --
    There's no -1 for "I don't get it."