“At Apple’s ‘Spring Forward’ event in March, the company proudly announced that it would be the exclusive launch partner for Time Warner HBO’s new over-the-top streaming service HBO Now,” Evan Niu writes for The Motley Fool. “he service launched in April on iOS devices and Apple TV as a new stand-alone app. For now, the Mac maker is still enjoying its three-month exclusivity window before HBO Now rolls out to other platforms, but it seems the deal has been a smashing success for the premium cable channel operator.”
“According to app analytics tracker App Annie, HBO Now topped the iOS App Store charts in May in terms of overall revenue,” Niu writes. “That comes after HBO Now launched on April 12 to correspond with the season premiere of Game of Thrones, and users who signed up in April scored a one-month free trial before the $15 per month subscription became effective. HBO Now had reached the No. 2 spot by May 7.”
Niu writes, “The data suggests not only that Apple and HBO added many new subscribers in those weeks, but also that those subscribers are sticking around even after the free trial has expired.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: There’s some nice leverage for Apple’s Internet TV negotiations.
SEE ALSO:
Apple, ‘Game Of Thrones’ produced a ‘super successful launch’ for HBO Now – April 21, 2015
How Apple’s Jimmy Iovine helped land HBO Now – April 7, 2015
‘HBO Now’ is now available to Apple device users; 30-day free trial offered – April 7, 2015
HBO Now standalone service exclusive for Apple devices until summer – March 10, 2015
HBO NOW premiers in April for iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, and Apple TV – March 9, 2015
Anxious to shit can DirecTV. The cable providers are going to whine when subscribers start bailing.
Perhaps they will whine, but as long as they maintain dominance over high speed internet they will make it very difficult to truly achieve media independence or save any money. The less that these companies make on cableTV, the more they will charge for the Internet access to stream channels, etc.
You can bet on that.
Very true. Few of us will have cable TV in 5 years, yet our broadband “service” will still be 30% more than the bundled bill is now.
I put DirecTV in the same metaphorical rat’s nest as Sprint. I’ve never had any sense that either company had anything but contempt for their customers. Then again, that’s been a biznizz wide trend for over a decade now. Any company that actually values and respects their customers (hello Apple!) is an oddity, a revelation, a gawd send these days. Let’s hope that customer centric companies are able to thrive on amidst the massive glut of bad attitude biznizziz. (My usual raving).
I don’t have experience with Sprint or DirecTV, but I find it hard to imagine they show more contempt for long, loyal customers than Comcast does.
An excellent addition to the list! I personally add Time Warner Cable and Verizon! They’ve both been intensely deplorable to their customers, as I know from personal experience!
What we need is a another FsckedCompany-Dot-Com. Hopefully one that doesn’t sell out to… companies.
Would love to see Apple work directly with content creators to put up a real independent news channel, and a couple Apple entertainment channels. That would work great in conjunction with continuing to offer individual episodes, or series, on iTunes so I can buy only the program’s I want to watch. Providing 2 or 3 free episodes of each program to sample so I know if I want to buy the series would be a great marketing approach
The evidence so far:
1. Apple advertsing: The best ad campaigns have been “Mac vs. PC” and the first one or two iPod campaigns. There have been hundreds of Apple commercials, but they are more like “People” magazine as compared to harder news of “Scientific American” or the “Economist.”
2. Apple keynotes: By all accounts, the most recent keynote had several PR blunders.
3. iTunes. I like the interface of the player. It needs work on UI and UI skins
4. iTunes Store induces cataracts.
5. Apple PR in general. Usually slow. The recent response to streaming (c.f. Taylor Swift and others) is an exception
… skipping ahead to the punchline
Conclusion: Apple does not know how to do news at this time without jeapordizing key business lines.
I tried HBO Now (with my Apple TV) for the free month, and paid for the next month. But I just canceled (selected not to auto-renew). It was good for catching some movies that I had not seen, but I’m not a Game of Throne fan…
I signed up for NetFlix at about the same time, and I’ll be keeping that subscription. Less expensive and more of what I like to watch…
I used it to watch all of Game of Thrones, Rome, and Silicon Valley.
Tim Cook is launching the GAY TV streaming service this fall.
The ANL channel, the SUK channel, the FST channel, and BJ channel. There will be one premium channel JIZZ.
And there is a new Watch app remote control. AppleTV selects the appropriate channel based on your hand motion and speed.
I’ll be glad when the childish “humor” ends (on all threads), and we get back to discussing Apple products.
Aren’t you up past your bedtime? Hope your mommy doesn’t catch you.