“HBO’s standalone streaming service will launch on Apple Inc devices next month in time for the season premiere of hit series ‘Game of Thrones,’ the network said on Monday, a move to reach millions of viewers who do not subscribe to pay television packages,” Lisa Richwine reports for Reuters. “The new HBO Now service will cost $14.99 a month. It will include the network’s past, present and future series plus its lineup of Hollywood movies.”
“It is the first time the premium network will be available to people with Internet access who shun traditional TV bundles with dozens of channels,” Richwine reports. “Starting in early April, HBO Now will be available through the Apple TV box and on iPhones, iPads and the iPod touch.”
“Apple will be the exclusive digital provider of HBO Now for three months. The network also is aiming to convince traditional TV distributors to offer the service as early as April.,” Richwine reports. “Apple also said it was cutting the Apple TV’s price to $69 from $99.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Only Apple.
I’ll be more than happy to take the 30 day free trial and then book.
At $14.99/month… Ridiculous. These execs don’t realise I watch only 4 shows a month if I watch HBO at all and I want to have some money left over to watch other networks, not HBO exclusively.
The price is ridiculous. I will pass.
On your tight budget, you are likely not going to get the Apple Watch Edition either. I hope things improve for you.
???!!!
At $15 per month, HBO Now costs approximately the same as it does through a cable TV provider. About the only difference is that cable operators often discount premium channels for some limited time (6 – 12 months), absorbing the difference, in order to lure customers away from competitors. HBO is usually not a part of these offers, so cable operators eat up that discount.
There are many people who never had HBO in their cable line-up and never wanted to pay for it. That doesn’t mean that $15 per month for HBO is ridiculous. Vast majority of current HBO subscribers (who pay for it through their cable operator) are paying as much and are happy to do it for the content they receive (with no commercial interruption).
Agreed. It would have been more attractive at $9.99 a month.
I would think the reason it’s on par with the cable offering price wise is that they would have to go favored nations with the cable companies if they dropped the price for the Apple TV direct offering. Thus reducing revenues to make new content with. They might not make it up with HBO Now. The good thing is we’re on the path to ala carte, even though at the end “we may not like what we find.”
$7.99 a month for Netflix (Thousands of Movies, hundreds of TV Shows)
$99.99 a year for Amazon Prime (Movies, TV, Radio) (AND I get free expedited shipping)
HBO for $14.99 – Game of Thrones (thats all I like of their lineup). No thanks, I’ll pay $35 for the whole season next year.
One of these is not as good as the others….
After six months of Netflix, I have pretty much exhausted their catalogue of stuff that is actually interesting to me. There may be a few British show that I have yet to watch, but not much more.
HBO offers the entire line-up of all of their series, present as well as past. Their revolving collection of films is always quite large, and there is always something I can find that I had never watched.
And their price of $15 is more-or-less the same as when you pay through your cable provider. For cord-cutters, this marks the elimination of one more dealbreaker; those who can’t live without their HBO have the option to cut their cable and keep the HBO.
There is no doubt that there is great value in HBO for those who watch it regularly.
I’m grabbing one of the current Apple TVs. My policy had been that I would not get a new one until they upgraded. But I never expected them to drop the price, much less to $69. That’s “f*** it, why not” territory.
——RM
I’m going to sign up for a while just to help scare the crap out of the cable/dish companies. 🙂