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“Time Warner Inc.’s pay-television channel, home to shows including the ‘The Sopranos’ and ‘True Blood,’ holds cable and Internet rights to films from Warner Bros., Twentieth Century Fox and Universal Pictures and is unlikely to make a deal with Netflix, HBO Co-President Eric Kessler said,” Grover reports. “‘There is value in exclusivity,’ Kessler said in an interview. Consumers ‘are willing to pay a premium for high quality, exclusive content,’ he said… HBO’s stand prevents Los Gatos, California-based Netflix from gaining online access to titles from all of the major studios”
Grover reports, “HBO intends to stick with its own plan to make shows and movies available online through HBO Go, Kessler said. The cable channel, which has more than 29 million subscribers, generated operating profit of $1.2 billion on $3.9 billion in revenue last year, according to a presentation by Time Warner on May 27… In six months, HBO Go will be available to the channel’s paying subscribers at no additional cost through all major cable systems, on Apple Inc.’s iPad, on mobile devices and elsewhere, Kessler said.”
Full article here.
Part of the article that mentions the iPad. Note that this will only be available to people that subscribe to HBO on Cable (and Satellite?)
In six months, HBO Go will be available to the channel’s paying subscribers at no additional cost through all major cable systems, on Apple Inc.’s iPad, on mobile devices and elsewhere, Kessler said.
Read between the lines, what did hbo really say?
It’s all about our greed, we think we can soak our customers some more, and frankly we don’t want to share those revenues with anyone else…
And so the new age media wars begin..
Highly annoying.
I already subscribe to HBO on DISH Network so it works for me. I thought Netflix was already delvering everything to the iPad it could online streaming or via DVD since it was among the first apps for the iPad. Am I mistaken?
@Truth: soaking their customers for more by offering them a new service for no additional cost? That’s an interesting strategy.
FutureMedia..I don’t quite understand this either, I already have Netflix streaming app on iPad; Warner Brothers, 20th Century Fox and Universal films already stream from it. I certainly have no interest at all with any subscription-based ANYTHING with HBO.
@ Jimithy–
No kidding! I think Truth may need to go back to school and brush up on comprehension skills!
As a current HBO subscriber, and fan of True Blood, I welcome this additional viewing option!
Another stupid subscription-based model to squeeze every dime out of consumers possible.
I don’t have a problem with where/who HBO distributes its content. Supporting the iPad makes sense, but so does disc rental on Netflix and elsewhere. That’s not an issue.
The problem is that there is no reason in the world why I should have to subscribe to anything. Why can’t I buy just one episode or just one series? If i purchase something and discover soon that it sucks, I shouldn’t have to pay for another year of it.
Don’t let anyone fool you, the “free market” has never really existed in the media world. Hollywood got rich with such legal exploitation.
This will be awesome for HBO subscribers like me because one of the big problems is a full DVR with no space to record the newest episodes of their original programming which is the number 1 reason to subscribe to HBO in the first place. Forget all the films. HBO Studios is an awesome production company that makes great original films as well as first rate series like True Blood and the new Martin Scorsese 1920’s Atlantic City Gangsters series.
I’m not getting cable and I’m not going back to those shysters at DirecTV.
Sell me a standalone subscription HBO and I’ll think about it.
Wow, 30% profit margin – overpriced minimalist product just like Apple.
The old days, that kind of margin was considered gouging…
I tried HBO years ago and didn’t get my money’s worth. When I look at HBO when staying at a hotel I still don’t see a reason to subscribe. Netflix, however, is the best $10/mo I have ever spent.
I agree with Al.
Because I am Al too.
And I heart Netflix.
@ TheConfuzed1
@ Jimithy
Please read again! and read this line twice…
Consumers ‘are willing to pay a premium for high quality, exclusive content,’ he said…
Every one of those word can be found in any current dictionary… There clear and concise, and are not hiding behind veiled rhetoric. They want your money and don’t mind repackaging and selling it to you again. At a premium! Boycott HBO and Time-Warner… thieving bastards.
Since I don’t have any sort of cable TV any more (good riddance) and I haven’t subscribed to HBO since the 80’s I’m not really missing anything. But it would have been nice to see the Sopranos. I guess. At least that’s what people tell me.
KILL YOUR TELEVISION.
@ChrissyOne
BEFORE YOUR TELEVISION KILLS YOU!
“FutureMedia..I don’t quite understand this either, I already have Netflix streaming app on iPad; Warner Brothers, 20th Century Fox and Universal films already stream from it. I certainly have no interest at all with any subscription-based ANYTHING with HBO.”
What’s more, more free top ipad for you: http://www.ifunia.com/ipad-column/top-10-best-free-ipad-apps.html
@ KingMel
Srsly. Mine started experimenting with chemical weapons when I refused to watch Jersey Shore.
I agree with you Chrissy1.
I would like where I could subscribe to 2 or three channels. But for the most part there is not much to offer. What shows I like I can get from iTunes. Or I can do the Hulu thing. The only time the TV gets turned on anymore is the local news. Even that is questionable. (The News, not turning on the TV)
Kill That TV!
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Netflix is alright, but one runs out of quality streaming content rather quickly. Most of their stuff is still locked on physical DRM protected DVD’s which have to be snail-mailed.
Netflix did make some sort of deal for more content recently, how much of that will be streamed remains to be seen.
Content creators want hardcore physical DRM. Silverlight, Flash and other streaming content protection is no match for a open computer as there will always be someone who will make a program to bypass the streaming DRM.
Apple is aiming to please content creators with the iPad, it’s just powerful enough to run content, but not record it, even jail broken. Plus it’s locked to the App Store to catch any “bypass” methods using current software.
The iPad creates a lot of confusion in regards to watching media, after all cell networks are rather slow and very expensive, so one resort to using high speed cable WIFI, likely at home. And since at home, why bother having to pay more, hold the iPad in uncomfortable position when the larger screen TV with a less expensive Roku or PS3 Netflix/Cable combination is right there?
@ iQuack
I realized after a while that my news addiction was making me retarded. That, and the noisy drone of commercials… gah.. never going back there.
Thank god MDN uses thwbword revolutionary on every ipad headline otherwise i would never know it. Get a new word mdn