HBO Has Officially Announced HBO Go Will Be Available To Everyone in 2015, Even If You Don't Have HBO
Deadline – HBO chairman and CEO Richard Plepler just confirmed what had been in the wind for some time: In 2015 a stand-alone over-the-top HBO Go service will launch in the the U.S. There are 80 million homes that do not have HBO, and “we will use all measures to go after them,” Plepler said during his network’s portion of the Time Warner Investor Day underway in NY. He said such a move could produce hundreds of millions of dollars in additional revenue. “There is huge opportunity in front of us… we will use all means at our disposal to go after it,” he said. “This is the most exciting inflection point domestically and internationally in the history of HBO.” Last month, Time Warner CEO Jeff Bewkes signaled the idea was brewing to offer HBO Go without a TV Anywhere authentication, noting the increasing opportunity of broadband was making a direct-to-consumer HBO Go “more viable and more interesting.” An Internet-only HBO Go offering has worked well after some hiccups in Finland, Norway, Sweden and Denmark, he said.
This rumor came to the forefront a month ago today, and now they have officially announced that HBO GO will in fact be available to everyone starting next year. Because obviously having a billion more dollars is a lot better than not having a billion more dollars. Pretty savvy decision making over there at the Home Box Office.
What this really means is that Netflix just got put on notice. This is direct competition. We all laughed when Netflix burst onto the scene, but I haven’t seen a Blockbuster Video in decades, maybe even years. There are going to be some violent and shady back room deals going on about which company gets the rights to what movie. Basic bitches everywhere will be on pins and needles about which company gets the rights to Mean Girls or Pretty Little Liars.
It’s an exciting time for TV. HBO has an extensive catalog of shows already, and you have to believe they’ll be pumping out HBO Go exclusive shows to bring in more subscriptions. As I said before, with all the best programing on services like Netflix and HBO, fewer and fewer people will find a reason to pay 100 bucks a month for cable. Plus if you’re even the least bit competent, you can find most other shows for free online anyway. I fully believe the NFL is not far behind, and we will soon be paying for a standalone NFL Network where the majority of the games will be broadcasted.