HBO confirmed it will start offering HBO Go as a separate standalone service. Starting sometime next year, viewers will for the first time be able to get HBO programming without having to have a pay TV subscription (legally, anyway).
The announcement would have been a surprise, if viewers hadn’t been clamoring for standalone access to HBO for more than two years, if HBO’s “Game of Thrones” hadn’t become known as the most frequently pirated show in television history, and if HBO executives hadn’t been asked about the possibility of offering HBO Go at every public appearance all along.
Everyone from viewers to financial analysts to HBO’s MVPD partners have been fully aware that the programmer has been leaving money on the table by not providing a stand-alone service.
HBO chairman and CEO Richard Plepler, speaking at the Time Warner Investor Day event, confirmed that in 2015 a stand-alone HBO Go service will launch in the U.S., according to multiple reports.
There are 80 million homes that do not have HBO, and “we will use all measures to go after them,” Plepler said.
The maneuver is one more step in the evolution of TV. Few other content producers have the technological sophistication to distribute their shows themselves, as HBO does.
On the other hand, cloud delivery services are now commonly available and progressively less expensive to use.
On the down side for most programmers is that few of them have the popularity of HBO. Being bundled in a pay-TV package remains the most viable avenue for gaining that kind of popularity for those who don’t already have it.
Either way, HBO’s maneuver might also provide encouragement to those who advocate for a la carte programming.
And either way, this sort of activity will help cement the value of broadband connectivity.
