“HBO launched HBO GO in 2010 to let subscribers view its shows over the Internet on devices such as Apple Inc’s iPads,” Alistair Barr and Liana B. Baker report for Reuters. “The service has about 6.5 million registered users, compared with about 29 million for HBO’s main service.”
“However, HBO GO is only accessible for viewers who pay for cable TV service, plus an extra fee for HBO. This means monthly bills of $100 or more typically,” Barr and Baker report. “HBO’s Chief Executive Richard Plepler aid late Wednesday that HBO GO could be packaged with a monthly Internet service, in partnership with broadband providers, reducing the cost.”
Barr and Baker report, “Customers could pay $50 a month for their broadband Internet and an extra $10 or $15 for HBO to be packaged in with that service, for a total of $60 or $65 per month, Plepler explained. ‘We would have to make the math work,’ he added.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: This sort of talk could bode well for Apple TV as well as the fabled “Apple iTV.”
Related articles:
HBO GO coming to Apple TV by mid-2013, sources say – February 1, 2013
Home Box Office releases HBO GO app for Apple iPad, iPhone, and iPod touch – April 29, 2011
Netflix. They’re all worried about Netflix. Doesn’t matter if it’s the greatest business plan, it’s growing consistently. And the cable companies and content providers are beginning to get their underwear in a twist. Good. Better for the consumers.
It ain’t Netflix, it’s the torrents they’re worried about.
Netflix? Pfft, it’s torrents that they’re worried about
This is what needs to happen for the ATV to be more than what it is. Apple needs to release a SDK for the ATV.
I think that’s coming. An App Store for the AppleTV.
It’s about TIME. Forcing its customers to subscribe to the antiquated cable TV method of streaming content is playing right into the hands of HBO’s competition. PLEASE make your service available so I can subscribe on my iPhone, iPad, and Mac!
how about HBO and Apple negotiate a subscription through iTunes? Apple could reduce it’s 0 cut to 15 and HBO could charge 7.99-10.99 a month. then HBO via AppleTV would follow quickly. Apple could negotiate first rights for distribution for paid downloads of full seasons and individual episodes for the reduced cut initially for Go subscriptions. Go subscribers through iTunes could be offered future discounts for full season downloads and back-catalogue shows etc. Why can’t HBO talk to Hulu and get its head out of its ass? I’m tired of relying on a big-brother cable company for anything more than Internet. AND if mobile broadband continues to get better and the next gen tech (5G, LTE rev.2, whatever) can offer 50 Mbps down then I’ll pay whatever company can off that at $50-75 per month with no restrictions. THIS IS WHAT THE PEOPLE WANT!! The revolution may or may not be televised 😉
I meant “0 cut to ”
ugh!!! MDN your cutting characters out of my post. I didn’t type 0. I typed 30 percent. That’s what I meant 30 to 15 percent.
I don’t want AAPL to cut their 30 percent ever. That is a fair price and HBO can accept 70 percent
Yeah, and if you have a cable modem… They will just lower the QOS for streaming media. The cable goons will get their coin one way or the other.
I hope HBO makes this happen. HBO Go, Apple TV, NetFlix, and over the air Broadcast HDTV is what I would need to say goodbye to my cable company.
If you think about it Cable TV sent us backwards about 10-20 years. It used to be that you bought a TV, plugged it in, and instantly got TV service. Wireless TV!, Wow!, it sounds so futuristic but it used to be commonplace.
Today you need a physical coax cable to your TV and worse yet, a huge, ugly, and slow cable box that you need to pay a monthly rental fee on top of your cable service. Not to mention that cable TV used to mean no commercials. It’s just gotten bad on so many levels.
Personally, going back 10 to 20 years sounds pretty good to me. I’m all in!
I really think if Apple plays it’s cards right, the cable stations (ex. HBO, Showtime, Skin-emax) can be winners (ie. more money per subscriber).
What happens to the bundled internet customers monthly data caps? Doesn’t take too many hour-long shows to burn through a GB.
YES!
This would spell the END of the cable TV monopoly as we now know it.
As an early cord cutter, I’ve been waiting for HBO and Showtime to make this happen.
I’ll PAY!! I’ll PAY!! I’ll PAY!! I’ll PAY!! I’ll PAY!!
I thought the people saw TV shows not channels.
Isn’t this like the “albums” concept in music?
I think we really want certain programs not the whole channel.
Of course the record lab…uhhh I mean the Channels will say it is more expensive. But there are fillers, just watch History Channel, all the historical…I mean all the reality shows you would ever want to see
Excellent point.
A giant crack in a gigantic dam. This is what gives the huge MSOs nightmares, and I wonder if they will be able to bribe Congress to pass laws preventing this?
Channels are outdated and force you to watch when the schedule it. The ads are wide cast to a mixed audience and are largely ineffective and mostly irrelevant. I want a great selection interface and streaming content when I want it.
Too bad there’s nothing worthwhile to watch on HBO, otherwise this would be a fine idea, Mr. Plepler.
Yeah, absolutely nothing. I guess Game of Thrones is the most pirated program in history just because people are masochists, huh?
——RM
you admire something because it is the most stolen?
No, I admire it because it is an awesome f***ing show, and each of those pirates must agree with me, otherwise they wouldn’t go to the effort.
But no, I’m sure you’re right that nothing on HBO is worth watching. Your off-hand dismissal trumps the votes of all the Game of Thrones fans. And True Blood fans. And Veep fans. And Boardwalk Empire fans. And “Girls” fans. Nope, nothing worth watching on HBO, no siree.
——RM
whatev.
I’ve been without Cable TV for over 3 years. I have a Roku and love it. The only app I pay for is Hulu Plus ($7.99 a month). HBO should do the same. I can see paying around $8 a month.
PEOPLE!!!!!!!
Get a grip. This won’t happen….yet.
It doesn’t matter how cool it would be for YOU, because in reality it is about making money, not making your life better.
As we know, HBO’s cash cow is cable/satellite. They would be CRAZY to ‘cut the cord’ with them.
Like Bill Murray says, ‘Baby Steps’. Cable is not as stupid as you folks would like to think. We know what is coming. We have to change our business models (and bandwidth abilities). This takes time, especially with this top-down recession still killing us.
Hey, wouldn’t solar powered/battery powered/natural gas powered vehicles be just great? Well, yeah, when it is finally feasible. Same with an all IP video network.
“Now we return you to your regularly scheduled dreams…..”
Live sports is the key. HBO knows that its days of forced bundling would be limited without ESPN’s unique, relatively time-critical content. As long as people will pay cable companies for live sports, then bundling (i.e., raping the end consumer) will persist.
… either that or the people could demand that their legislators and the FCC stop cowtowing to multinational corporations. If the anti-AHCA activists would spend their time lobbying for media consumers to not be forced to buy something he does not want, maybe some headway could be made. Until then, corporatocracy will continue as usual, with Big Media, Big Insurance, & Big Oil taking their turns screwing the public. Few other institutions on the planet are needlessly un-competitive and corrupt as these.