HBO Go on the move to stand alone service?

[mike123abc]

http://www.forbes.com/sites/insertc...e-10-year-exclusive-deal-wage-war-on-netflix/

HBO inked a deal for 10 years of exclusive internet streaming with Universal Movies:

Rather, this deal simply means that Universal movies will not appear on Netflix for the next ten years. HBO has similar deals with Fox, WB and Summit as well.

The question then becomes, why? Why would any self-respecting studio do this when it’s quite obvious that the future (and present for that matter) of consuming movies via television is Netflix? Binding themselves to airing on a pay channel seems overly restrictive, no?

I think people are missing the larger idea of what’s happening here, and that’s HBO becoming the closest thing Netflix has to a direct competitor. The groundwork is already in place with the aforementioned Go service. Add in exclusive access to movies from all those studios, and $15 a month for HBO Go starts looking nearly as appealing as $15 a month for Netflix.

HBO Go standalone may convince me to give up satellite/cable (I have good OTA).