
HBO is finally going to let you watch its shows without cable - Deinos
http://www.theverge.com/2014/10/15/6982049/hbo-go-will-offer-standalone-subscription-2015
======
untothebreach
I ditched cable a while ago, but wasn't willing to give up watching some HBO
shows, so I convinced myself that pirating them was 'ok,' since that was 'the
only for me to get them.' I later realized that my attitude was hypocritical,
that I just wanted to have my cake and eat it too. I stopped pirating their
shows then, and have definitely missed some of them.

So I am excited about this, and will subscribe as soon as it is available.
I'll get to catch up on Game of Thrones now!

~~~
HelloMcFly
I've found that it's not terribly difficult to wait for the shows to come to
Amazon Instant. For a bit I pirated premium channel content on release and
bought it on Amazon Instant after the fact. I eventually realized that waiting
really didn't impact my enjoyment.

I do still supplement my NBA League Pass with viewing of unauthorized streams
for games that are not aired on League Pass.

~~~
chc
Game of Thrones season 4 is still not on Amazon in the US. I think that would
impact my enjoyment, since part of the enjoyment is being able to talk to
people about it. By the time I'd be able to watch it on there, they wouldn't
even remember what happened that season.

~~~
HelloMcFly
I imagine you're right - GoT may be the only one I can think of like that for
me, but I have the luxury of watching at a friend's house.

------
emacdona
This is really great news for me (I "cut the cable" a couple of years ago). I
was thrilled when HBO released a lot of content on Amazon Prime. I've been
buying content they haven't released on Prime through Amazon streaming
(Silicon Valley, Game of Thrones). I have been anxiously awaiting the day
where I could buy a "season pass" for current run HBO content.

I've concluded there were a few benefits HBO got from their close relationship
with cable companies: 1) The huge customer base that cable companies have 2)
The advertising that cable companies provide 3) The distribution of content
that cable companies provide

I always felt the release of content to Amazon Prime was an experiment and
judging by this news, I think that experiment was deemed a success. I suspect
that HBO concluded that Amazon is more than capable of distributing the
content and that there are plenty of customers willing to pay for it when it's
delivered by a means other than the cable company.

I still suspect that Amazon will play a role in hosting and distributing
content for whatever "HBO Go" becomes one year from now.

------
daigoba66
Now this just needs to happen with other TV networks.

For example, I'd love to pay AMC Networks[0], A&E Networks[1], or NBC
Universal[2] a nominal monthly fee to access their catalogs on-demand.

While it's true that these networks stream some of their current shows online,
the players and streaming experience is usually very terrible.

That's how I want to the future to be: everything is like Netflix or HBO-sans-
cable. Maybe even eliminate, or at least reduce commercials.

And it's not exactly a-la-carte, because most channels aren't individual
networks. And most shows are perfectly suited for on-demand viewing. There are
very few things I watch that are actually "broadcast" live (news and sports
are pretty much it). All I'm suggesting is that we bypass the cable companies
and pay the publishers directly for content. I'd pay good money to an Internet
Service Provider who gives me a fast and stable connection to the publisher's
servers.

The flip side of all this choice is that it's no longer dead-simple for
consumers. It sure is convenient to simply pay Comcast $100 a month and they
take care of getting all of these networks and publishers into my home in one
box with one remote control. Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon apps are fairly
ubiquitous on pretty much every platform including built right into many TVs.
I doubt traditional TV networks want to invest in that technology.

[0]
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AMC_Networks](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AMC_Networks)

[1]
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A%26E_Networks](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A%26E_Networks)

[2]
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NBCUniversal_Cable](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NBCUniversal_Cable)

~~~
bkeroack
The aggregate of all these fees (plus Netflix, Amazon, etc) will likely
approach or exceed the cost of a typical cable subscription.

~~~
dragonwriter
> The aggregate of all these fees (plus Netflix, Amazon, etc) will likely
> approach or exceed the cost of a typical cable subscription.

The single-service cost of any one of the most popular services will likely
approach or exceed the cost of a typical cable subscription while providing
far less (but more focussed) content.

~~~
pdabbadabba
Unless one of those services is HBO Go. At least in my market, the cheapest
cable package that includes HBO is extraordinarily expensive (often in the
neighborhood of $120/mo). Of course, this makes some pretty thick assumptions
about the cost of HBO Go as an over-the-top service.

------
jessedhillon
So this only matters if the video stream can actually be delivered to your
house with reasonably good bandwidth. I hope there isn't someone between your
house and HBO's servers who has an interest in degrading that traffic!

~~~
op00to
THIS. I predict the next big peering standoff to be between HBO and Verizon /
Comcast based on these news. Looking at my HBO GO connection now, HBO seems to
be getting bandwidth through Level3. I expect to see the same "congestion"
shenanigans from the cable companies that we saw during the Netflix peering
dustup.

------
DigitalSea
It is about damn time.

Welcome to the present, HBO. I am assuming this move is in part to the
massively high piracy rate for Game of Thrones episodes. As an Australian
resident with no real access to current episodes of Game of Thrones without
getting cable TV, I hope they do come through on delivering the service
overseas (especially Australia), because if the price is right, I will gladly
pay for HD episodes of Game of Thrones (amongst other great HBO shows like
True Detective).

~~~
paulannesley
> As an Australian resident with no real access to current episodes of Game of
> Thrones without getting cable TV …

That's the same situation as USA.

Australia actually briefly had it better than USA, with the AU iTunes store
releasing HBO shows like GoT within a day or two of their USA cable release.
But then HBO + Foxtel broke that.

------
uptown
Seems like they're finally embracing the philosophy to fighting piracy from
Kim Dotcom:

How to stop piracy:

1\. Create great content

2\. Make it easy to buy

3\. Same day global release

4\. Works on any device

5\. Fair price

~~~
jessedhillon
Did you see something asserting point 4?

~~~
uptown
Maybe it won't work on your Android-powered toaster, but the devices they
currently support are fairly comprehensive:

[http://www.hbogo.com/#devices/](http://www.hbogo.com/#devices/)

~~~
bjelkeman-again
What is missing for me is Apple TV, but I suppose that cuts too deep into
HBO's income.

~~~
maibaum
Apple TV supports HBO Go.

[https://www.apple.com/pr/library/2013/06/19HBO-GO-
WatchESPN-...](https://www.apple.com/pr/library/2013/06/19HBO-GO-WatchESPN-
Come-to-Apple-TV.html)

------
hoopism
I cut the cord 3 years ago and regularly pay 2 dollars an episode for shows I
want to watch. I own several rokus and pay for prime, hulu (occasionally) and
netflix (occasionally). I have never been happier with my tv/media
consumption.

Hulu is the only thing I would like to replace... I have no tolerance for
ads... I'd pay more to get rid of them. I don't know how anyone watches
regular tv (unless it's with a DVR).

~~~
ryanSrich
This. I actually had an idea for producing a product that gave users truly
commercial free cable (the way it was actually intended to function in the
first place).But considering the nature of that market the only real way to
make it work, at least based on my cursory research, is to become the content
provider (much like what Netflix is doing).

------
athenot
Cable TV contracts are typically very long (5-7 years) so I'm wondering if
this is partly due to some existing contract coming up for renegotiation.

Anyhow, if HBO starts selling their content directly, that's going to give
them some leverage for better terms with MSOs.

------
antr
What would really be groundbreaking is to allow non-US based viewers to
subscribe to the service, without any type of geo fence. I would be happy to
pay for the service as a European consumer. That would mean no more GoT
torrenting for me.

~~~
koyote
I wonder how much money they are making selling their content to foreign
networks vs. the amount they could make opening their online service up
globally.

I am assuming that if they did open it up globally, they would not be able to
sell the shows for as much money to other networks.

~~~
antr
I understand your comment, and you are probably right. I like to watch
movies/tv shows in their original language, so not many would be open to pay
to watch english only shows... I don't know.

~~~
icebraining
Here in Portugal, I'd say subtitles are still a must if you want to reach most
of the market. The average HBO show viewer has certainly a better grasp of
English than the average citizen, but probably not good enough to understand
complex dialog.

That said, subtitling from English is fairly cheap, especially at the current
level of quality, so there's no reason to avoid it.

------
pasbesoin
I've spent the last 5+ years using subscription models. I'm about done with
them. Disappearing content. Inconvenient or no access at times and places.
Increasingly feeling I've been funding the very "editing" and abuse I've
wanted to escape.

My personal conclusion is that the money would have been better spent just
gradually building up my own library. And, were it closer, in supporting my
local library.

In other words: Too little, too late, for me.

------
Mankhool
What about Canada? I'd subscribe in a second as we too, are cord cutters up
here.

~~~
tjradcliffe
Wouldn't it be nice. As a Canadian who hasn't had cable for a decade, every
six months or so I check on options. I subscribed to Netflix when we got it
here, and it's cheap and good, but I'd love to be able to access HBO and other
movie content.

I tried to find a legal download of Bladerunner the other day, and got the
following:

1) Amazon.com geofenced it

2) Google Play won't let me download it (I have "bought" movies on Google Play
before, but like any digital play-for-now service they will eventually become
unavailable to me: I will no longer buy digital content I can't rip to an open
format, because temporary proprietary access is not what I'm looking for.)

3) iTunes doesn't have it

4) Amazon.ca doesn't do digital downloads of films, near as I can tell. They
certainly didn't have the one I was looking for.

All I want to be able to do is pay for a legal digital copy of a film, and I
can't. I can buy a piece of plastic with the bits burned into it that I have
no device to play, but that's a ridiculous waste.

I didn't torrent the film... I just ended up saying, "Screw it. No sale for
me."

Business 101: _make it easy for customers to give you money_.

This is something that digital streaming companies (other than Netflix) have
not mastered.

------
themoonbus
Glad to hear it.

For the time being, for anyone with Amazon Prime, the HBO collection isn't
bad:
[http://www.amazon.com/b?node=9097393011](http://www.amazon.com/b?node=9097393011)

It's not nearly as complete or up-to-date as HBO go of course, but it has lot
of the most popular shows.

We have HBO go and actually use Amazon prime to watch HBO shows since Comcast
has yet to support logging into HBO go on PS3.

~~~
thevdude
Spend the $35 and check out a chromecast. If I'm remembering properly, a
friend with comcast had no issues shooting HBO go over to it.

~~~
themoonbus
Ah good advice, I will check it out.

------
LordKano
I would have cut my cable years ago if I could have gotten current episodes of
True Blood and The Walking Dead through streaming services.

This is a step in the right direction. Comcast and Verizon must be quaking in
their boots because as more networks decide to go the direct distribution
route, the less necessary their TV distribution services will become.

------
protonfish
So all that stuff they were saying about how it was financially impossible to
do this was just PR fabrication? I never would have suspected.

~~~
jdmichal
It may very well have been financially impossible, if they had a contract in
place preventing them from doing it. Circumstances change, contracts expire...

~~~
protonfish
I assure you that was not what they were saying. I have been trying to find
the AMA some VP of HBO did on Reddit (basically as a response to this
[http://theoatmeal.com/comics/game_of_thrones](http://theoatmeal.com/comics/game_of_thrones)
) where they "explained" why they just simple cannot put their content online
and the Redditors lapped it up.

------
cswhatt
Just another example of leverage tipping more towards content generators. Good
trend for consumers ultimately, bad for providers.

~~~
r00fus
Definitely bad for the incumbent local-monopolized middlemen like
Comcast/Verizon.

------
geophile
HBO has enough good content that I keep subscribing to cable to get it. I have
zero interest in sports (ESPN). So for me, this is the end of my cable
subscription.

This is the beginning of the end for cable. And hopefully also for propaganda
stations like Fox News.

~~~
kenrikm
"This is the beginning of the end for cable. And hopefully also for propaganda
stations like Fox News and MSNBC."

Fixed.

~~~
rowill
Huffington Post is the most-shared site on Facebook. Cable is not responsible
for trash news, a lot of people eat it up.

------
rogerbinns
Hopefully they will decide not to be yet another island and also work with
Netflix. I'd be perfectly happy paying the subscription fee to Netflix and
being able to see the content through the existing Netflix apps I have
everywhere.

~~~
eric_cc
Hopefully they DO decide to be yet another island. Otherwise, services like
Netflix will turn into cable. I have no problem using AppleTV/Roku browsing to
the service I want.

~~~
Tloewald
I do wish AppleTV had federated search. Well, maybe it will tomorrow.

~~~
matthewmcg
Yes, the timing of this news the day before the Apple event is...interesting.

------
wil421
This has been pretty much the only reason I keep expensive cable services.

The only thing that will keep me away is if the price is a lot more expensive
than the $14 a month I a currently paying for HBO.

~~~
ghshephard
The cheapest I was able to get HBO in Redwood City, California, was $72/month
all in - and that was waiting for a bit over a year for their $20/month
special. The cost of the Digital Cable was the thing that made it pricey (in
addition to the basic cable service).

Given that the only thing I wanted cable for was HBO, that meant I would be
paying $72/month for HBO. A little rich. My over/under is probably around
$30/month.

------
munificent
RIP cable.

~~~
op00to
I'm not so sure this is bad for cable companies. Until the cable companies are
treated as common carriers, they will be free to pull whatever games they want
to play against content providers, like leaving handoff links from transit
providers overloaded.

