HBO To Release Cable-less Subscription Service For Apple TV

Hit Fix – HBO‘s standalone streaming service has a name, a price, a premiere month and, for now, an exclusive home in Apple TV. Starting next month (the press release doesn’t give an exact date, but says it will be in time for the fifth season premiere of “Game of Thrones,” which is on April 12), people who want to watch HBO but don’t want to get a cable subscription to do so can now get the HBO Now service for $14.99 a month, which will largely duplicate what traditional HBO subscribers can stream through HBO Go. According to the press release, “HBO NOW provides instant access to HBO’s acclaimed programming.  Watch every episode of every season of the best series programming, more of the biggest and latest Hollywood hit movies, original HBO Films, groundbreaking documentaries, sports and comedy and music specials.  To subscribe to the streaming service HBO NOW, consumers only need the internet.” The service will include both current series as well as many classic shows from the HBO library like “The Sopranos,” “The Wire” and “Sex and the City.” (Neither Now nor Go offers shows that HBO doesn’t own the rerun rights to, like “The Larry Sanders Show.”) For the first three months of its existence, Apple and its devices (Apple TV, iPhone, iPad, etc.) will be the only way you can use the HBO Now app, though subscribers will be able to watch on HBONow.com. Apple no doubt paid a large chunk of money to have that exclusive window during “Game of Thrones” season — and customers who sign up in April through Apple get the first month free — but I suspect Roku and other devices will have access to the app down the road.

So this is it. Finally here. For all the people oppressed by Time Warner or Comcast or all the other cable providers, this is the beginning of the end. Cable-less subscriptions to major channels providing major shows. For years now theres been the hipsters who dont have cable and just watch Netflix and Hulu but HBO Now will be the first big platform with week to week TV that you can now access without a cable subscription. Cable obviously is still king for many reasons – sports and news primarily – but the fact that Game of Thrones and True Detective and all these other award winning TV shows are now available without cable is a big deal.

Now in a perfect world I’d love to be able to put together this a la carte TV world where I can buy HBO, Showtime, FX, ESPN, Fox Sports 1, AMC etc etc. Just piece together what channels I need and what I dont and get rid of my $150 a month bill. But the thing is the money is just gonna shift. Advertising will adapt one way or the other and if you’re not paying the cable monopolies you’ll be paying somebody else. If HBO Now is $15.99 and you want 8-10 channels where there’s your 150 dollars. Apple already has their hands all over this with the first few months of HBO Now being exclusive to them, so maybe they’ll start to charge. Or now Time Warner and Comcast just charge triple the price for wifi internet. Or Netflix or some sort of conglomerate of streaming services rules content. Wouldnt be surprised if there was merging of some sort of a major player emerges in this new realm of television. There’s no way the TV world is just going to shift to completely customizable content thats drastically cheaper than your current situation. At least not long term. I’d love to think it is but I dont think thats realistic. You’ll pay for content one way or the other.

Regardless for the foreseeable future cable is still gonna be a necessary evil. But pretty crazy to think that some of the biggest best TV shows out there right now are available without a cable subscription. A $69 Apple TV, a 15 dollar monthly bill, and a a wireless network allows you access to hundred on hundreds of episodes of some of the best TV and movies ever. Pretty cool development in the world of entertainment