Entertainment

HBO Launching Standalone Streaming Service

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Deal Addict
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Jul 18, 2010
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Edmonton

HBO Launching Standalone Streaming Service

http://www.wired.com/2014/10/hbo-stream ... al_twitter

[QUOTE]HBO has announced it will launch its own online video streaming service next year, no cable TV subscription needed.

Details on the new service’s name, how much it will cost, and what content will be available are still unclear, but one thing is sure: cable companies, should be very, very afraid.[/QUOTE]

Hopefully it comes to Canada too.
19 replies
Newbie
Dec 5, 2009
23 posts
3 upvotes
Toronto
It's a good move, and a lot of other networks are heading that way. Canada has to start clueing in that this isn't going away.
Deal Guru
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Mar 12, 2005
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Victoria
bondjimbond wrote: It's a good move, and a lot of other networks are heading that way. Canada has to start clueing in that this isn't going away.
Except Canadian networks do nothing but buy the Canadian rights to air US content. If everything goes online and people stop using cable, and channels like HBO already have a streaming service setup. Why would they allow a middle man to take a cut? :) It would be funny if this caused american channels to slowly stop licensing content to canadian tv channels :)
Deal Fanatic
Jan 13, 2005
7766 posts
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I already have it... Its called TMN GO
Deal Guru
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Apr 26, 2004
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Mississauga
nano wrote: I already have it... Its called TMN GO
Not the same thing at all.
Deal Guru
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Nov 30, 2009
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Toronto
Piro21 wrote: The telcos here will find some way for all the data sent via this service to be counted double against your monthly cap, and the CRTC will rubber stamp it.
Honestly, in today's market I think the days of the telcos having there big say is over.
[QUOTE]I wish there was a way to know you're in the good old days before you've actually left them.[/QUOTE] ~Andy Bernard, The Office (U.S.)
Deal Fanatic
Jan 11, 2004
5000 posts
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Victoria
Cable is definitely on death's door but it will be interesting to see if networks go as well. In the music business record labels survived the move the digital because they finance projects and also have the ability to promote and of course radio airplay is still somewhat important. For television, studios provide financing for projects and then license to networks. A lot of networks own studios though. Anyway will networks survive? Looks like HBO wants to.
Deal Addict
Jan 13, 2004
1629 posts
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Mississauga
Hopefully someone has an answer for me, I can't see the HBO NOW icon on my home screen on my atv, I'm logged on to see US content but for some reason the icon is missing. Searched online but haven't found a answer any help is much appreciated.
Deal Addict
Sep 26, 2010
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tommyamaral wrote: Hopefully someone has an answer for me, I can't see the HBO NOW icon on my home screen on my atv, I'm logged on to see US content but for some reason the icon is missing. Searched online but haven't found a answer any help is much appreciated.
Try restarting it. Maybe it will appear?
Deal Guru
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Dec 7, 2009
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There are all ready countless alternatives to access content. The genie is out of the bottle. The only way to retain revenue is for studios, networks and online distributors to band together and offer highly competitive on-demand type services for a monthly fee.

This means that networks need to sink money into content and online distribution or die.
In a perfect system, corporations would fear the government and the government would fear the people. - David Wong

Check out caRpetbomBer's picks in this thread.
Sr. Member
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Aug 6, 2009
521 posts
79 upvotes
GTA
unblock us is now working for HBO Now. You can buy digital US iTunes cards online (I just had an amerifriend buy from ebay gift cards)

Remember that if you love the service and plan to continue paying, keep an eye out for 20-25% US iTunes gift card deals.
Deal Addict
Jan 13, 2004
1629 posts
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Mississauga
I couldn't update the ATV2 or I would lose my jailbreak Had to update my plist file, Channel shows up now signed up for the free trail HBO now works very well, Now my wife can watch Game of thrones live.
Deal Expert
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Jul 5, 2004
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Good to hear. Now if there was just a way for me to reliably stream the NFL, I'd cancel my cable. I have the issue of a mediocre internet connection though with a 50 GB cap. Internet in rural Canada is still pretty weak
Deal Expert
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Dec 7, 2012
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GTHA
Any former HBO NOW subscribers got a survey recently?

from HBO NOW Discounted Prepaid Plans May be on the Horizon

Well, today, a customer satisfaction survey with the promise of being entered into a $500 giveaway for my participation arrived in my inbox. I’m glad I bit, because I came across some interesting information. Apparently, HBO is seriously considering the idea of offering prepaid discounts for its standalone streaming service.
Deal Expert
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Dec 7, 2012
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Slow start for HBO Now with just 800,000 subscribers
The standalone streaming service has yet to hit Playstation, Xbox platforms.
Time Warner had its fourth-quarter earnings call on Wednesday morning, and HBO, a subsidiary of the network, revealed some interesting information about its new standalone streaming service, HBO Now. The highly anticipated launch of HBO Now was expected to draw a huge following from cord-cutters. But Richard Plepler, the CEO of HBO, told investors and journalists that HBO Now had only attracted about 800,000 subscribers since the service launched in April.

Plepler said he was pleased with the growth, especially considering that HBO Now hasn’t yet been released on Playstation and Xbox platforms. He added that HBO Now also hasn’t yet released content from Jon Stewart, Bill Simmons, and the Vice Daily News Show, which he said was certain to drive subscriptions. Still, 800,000 subscribers could be seen as a slow start, especially considering that Plepler told investors in November 2014 that he was hoping to draw in four or five million new subscribers with HBO Now.
”We’re learning all the time… We see an enormous amount of subscribers ahead,” Plepler said on the call today, adding that, "HBO Now is an additive part of our growth strategy… We’re going to work in a multifaceted way to expand our sub[scriber] base.”

Together, HBO and Cinemax brought in 2.7 million new subscribers who purchased either a traditional bundle or HBO Now’s online-only package.

On the call, one investor asked about HBO Now’s price point—at $14.99 a month, it’s $5 more expensive than a monthly Netflix subscription. Plepler said that for the time being, HBO has no plans to lower that subscription cost, but it would continue to assess the market.

HBO Now was a contentious project getting off the ground because it gave cord-cutters a way to further divorce themselves from traditional pay-TV packages without having to lose HBO’s very popular content. Content distributors that suddenly saw themselves getting cut out of the loop were reluctant to back such a service. But Plepler said in October that he didn’t understand why broadband providers like Comcast, Charter, Time Warner Cable, and AT&T (which owns DirecTV) wouldn’t jump at the chance to distribute HBO Now. “If you’re Brian [Roberts, CEO of Comcast] and you have 6 million broadband subs, why would you not bundle HBO and share that revenue with us? Why would you give up that real estate and not be paid for it? I don’t understand it,” Plepler said at the time.

Plepler argued today that distributors are coming around, realizing that they need to offer more on-demand content, especially if they want to attract younger audiences. “I reject the notion that our major distributors out-of-hand don’t want to bundle HBO Now,” Plepler said, adding that as HBO’s contracts with its distributors come up for renewal, it can renegotiate in a way that’s beneficial for HBO Now.

According to leaked details of an early contract with DirecTV in December 2014, the TV provider wanted to be able to scale back its marketing of HBO if HBO signed up more than 450,000 subscribers nationally or more than 300,000 subscribers in any given market. It’s unclear if such a contract ever went into effect.

But Plepler seems to think that distributors are seeing the light. “Nobody’s doing us any favors by selling HBO; they’re growing their business by using our brand,” the CEO said.
Deal Fanatic
Nov 24, 2013
6479 posts
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Kingston, ON
It'd be 800,001 if BCE would launch "TMN Now" in Canada. Come on... in time for April please.

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