HBO eyes April premiere for its standalone streaming service
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I would have to give this careful thought if it were priced at, say $5/month and available via Roku or Chromecast.
They will be slitting there own throats if they undercut the cable and dish companies by much. Or the product might be a small subset of the actual channel's content.
I would be all over standalone HBO Go for $9.99. I currently pay for a family member to get HBO from Dish during Game of Thrones seasons so I can use their account. I am a cord cutter who has always been willing to pay for HBO Go directly but since they weren't offering it I had to use that work around.
Dish charges $18 for HBO so I would be happy to pay $10 for streaming only access during the months GoT is airing. Luckily the people I'm going through have been able to get half off HBO so the price I've been paying is right in that $10 range already.
When I subscribe for Game of Thrones that means I probably have HBO Go for 3 months. That $30 is less than the cost of buying the blu-ray a year later and I get access to all the other HBO shows I missed like True Detective during that time. It has always been a no brainer at around $10 per month for me but if I had to go closer to $20 I'm not sure I would be interested.
What? Are the cable/satellite companies going to start dropping HBO because they are now selling it standalone? I'm in my late 20s and I know more and more people my age who are choosing not to pay for traditional TV. Everyone my age has been using Netflix for years. When we graduated college and started getting our own homes we were already used to getting most of our content from the internet. Many of my friends never even bothered to get cable/satellite when they got their first place of their own after college.
Cable/satellite are not the must have utility they were for people my parent's age. People like premium network series and HBO has by far the most popular shows in that category. These companies are already declining. HBO has the content people want and people are more loyal to the content than the delivery mechanism. I say that the provider who chooses to drop HBO out of spite because they offer a plan like this would be the ones slitting their own throat. HBO will be just fine.
I'm not suggesting cable will drop HBO. The issue is about $18 per sub from cable, I assume cable gets a little something, vs. let's say $10 for standalone. That is almost half the rate. What would that do to HBO's bottom line? According to this article from February:
http://www.businessweek.com/article...-reveals-profit-numbers-dot-take-that-netflix
HBO has 114 million subscribers, and despite all the cord cutters the numbers are growing.
While googling this I also see a cnet article from October suggesting a standalone price for HBO GO of $15. $15 I can believe. $10? No.
I'm one of those new subscribers. My Comcast promotional rate was up, so I signed up for a new promotion: 100Mbps internet, plus 60ish channels including HBO for $10 less than internet alone (at 25Mbps). It was pretty much a no-brainer. I have a feeling we'll see more internet + basic + HBO to keep too many people from switching to purely internet, plus HBO streaming.
I too recently took an upgrade from Comcast for 100 Mbps service plus all the movie channels. I was surprised they gave me a new 2 year deal as I had only had service for 6 months.
My point on HBO Go standalone pricing is I don't believe they will price it low enough to entice their current customer base to switch.
HBO also decided to stop internal HBO GO development and use MLB Advanced (yes Major League Ball) to run the service.
http://fortune.com/2014/12/09/hbo-streaming/
http://fortune.com/2014/12/09/hbo-streaming/
MLB Advanced Media does a good job with MLB.tv. They mentioned WWE network in that quote. I think they also handle the backend for WatchESPN and the NHL GameCenter streaming package. They have lots of experience with major streaming services. I use MLB.tv and WatchESPN on my Apple TV and both services have good picture quality and reliability.
That being said, I have always been pretty impressed with the quality of HBO Go on my Apple TV too. They actually deliver DD 5.1 unlike the sports services MLBAM offers. They did have some overload issues during the season premiere and finale of Game of Thrones but it's usually pretty solid for me.
That being said, I have always been pretty impressed with the quality of HBO Go on my Apple TV too. They actually deliver DD 5.1 unlike the sports services MLBAM offers. They did have some overload issues during the season premiere and finale of Game of Thrones but it's usually pretty solid for me.
6.8 Million People Say They're Ready to Cut the Cord After HBO Go Launches -- Are You One of Them? http://www.fool.com/investing/gener...-people-say-theyre-ready-to-cut-the-cord.aspx
Boy with as little value as cinemax is they should just throw it in.
My cable contract just expired and they gave me a new deal. This one bundles in HBO. I wonder if it is in response to the HBO GO standalone threat?
5.8 million people bluffing. But HBO going a la carte is a good thing for people that actually intend or are already cord cutters. Paying $20 a month is nothing compared to $80 to $120. But this only works if you don't want any other type of newish programming that is available on other channels... or sports.
HBO Online Service Will Launch in 2015, Priced as Premium Product https://tv.yahoo.com/news/hbo-online-launch-2015-priced-premium-product-170457531.html
With all these individual channels now going standalone...at one point will cost more than a traditional package.
HBO: 20$
Sling:20$
Netflix: 10$
It can add up pretty fast.
