HBO will offer stand alone streaming next year!! The fall of calble/dish is near

[nate]

i could have sworn i saw something a couple of weeks ago that a court sided against the nfl and blackout rules.

 

NFL is still allowed to include blackouts as a part of their contracts with providers.

[gotbeer]

Streaming speeds would be the biggest question for me.  I can't stand MLB videos because the streaming speed is just bad.  

 

Of course HBO will hopefully invest like a Netflix (which I haven't used in years, so not sure if they got over the hump yet).  Whereas Youtube streams easily because they have the tech to back it up.  

 

Other question is the cost and how many devices it can be used on.

[Schildog]

I don't think it was court mandated, just that the FCC was against them. The NFL said something about staying firm with their business model.

 

I could be wrong. I think someone posted the link here a while back.

 

nah that sounds more right. 

[mrwicked]

This is awesome.

Hard to say how much impact it will have initially.

You can guarantee it will be expensive as f*ck.

HBO has to walk a fine line to not completely piss off cable companies.

Remember they have basically $0 marketing budget because they are always included by default.

So they make way more from cable companies than they would as a standalone.

Awesome progress though. Gonna be a long process to bring down cable company stranglehold.

Like I've been saying for years - if I'm Apple I use some of my mountain of cash to buy HBO and ESPN.

[Brandon]

Just got off the phone with Time Warner.

I hope they all eat shit and go out of business. Nothing more frustrating than getting passed around then hung up on because the last person said they couldn't help me either. It's a rarity that company doesn't want to take my money when I'm trying to give it to them.

[Adam]

The cable companies being awful works to your favor sometimes. We signed some 2 year thing with Cox when we bought our place. Cancellation fee of $360.00 clear as day in the contract. We were good with paying that fee when we cancelled to get DirecTv. Not only did they say there was no cancellation fee when we cancelled, they sent us a check for $177 in refunds. 

[Brandon]

Nice.

I shot for Directv through ATT to bundle all our services when we moved but don't have a south/southwest view......and didn't have an asshole rep that would have tried to push it through like we are familiar with.

We might be moving to OC soon and I don't think we have a contract. Try for Directv then....it's the nuts. I miss it and calling them every six months to threaten to cancel so they kept giving me that all movie channels for six months promo.

[RallyMo]

We're getting install at the house tomorrow for the following UVerse deal...

https://www.att.com/shop/tv/hbo-offers.html#fbid=70OnU9qb_4u

I'll be adding Showtime (which we'll access via Showtime Anytime) and my total will be around $56 monthly for internet, Showtime, HBO (via Go), a year of Amazon Prime and basic TV.

Not bad.

Edited October 15, 2014 by RallyMo

[Jay]

We're getting install at the house for the following UVerse deal...

https://www.att.com/shop/tv/hbo-offers.html#fbid=70OnU9qb_4u

I'll be adding Showtime (which we'll access via Showtime Anytime) and my total will be around $56 monthly for internet, Showtime, HBO (via Go), a year of Amazon Prime and basic TV.

Not bad.

 

That's pretty good.  So after a year does it jump up to $156?

[RallyMo]

That's pretty good. So after a year does it jump up to $156?

Of course it jumps up to about a billion a month, but I'll just cancel and switch to Comcast's equivalent deal then.

[Jay]

Of course it jumps up to about a billion a month, but I'll just cancel and switch to Comcast's equivalent deal then.

 

At least that way you stay familiar with all the different remote controls.

[DB24]

Will this change effect HBO account sharing? I hope not

 

Also this makes a lot of sense now  -->  HBO CEO encourages account sharing http://bgr.com/2014/01/20/hbo-go-login-sharing-policy/

[Brandon]

I knew an old dude that used to hop through all of them every six months or year when the promotions ended.

Aside from it being funny, I was impressed he had those options since usually a certain company monopolizes territory.

[Brandon]

Will this change effect HBO account sharing? I hope not

Also this makes a lot of sense now --> HBO CEO encourages account sharing http://bgr.com/2014/01/20/hbo-go-login-sharing-policy/

Yeah, we share ours with friends and family that can't afford the extra service.

Wouldn't be surprised if the new one is like Spotify where you can share, but not more than one user at a time can use the account.....you get a notice that you kicked off the other user or vice versa.

[RallyMo]

I knew an old dude that used to hop through all of them every six months or year when the promotions ended.

Aside from it being funny, I was impressed he had those options since usually a certain company monopolizes territory.

There are areas of San Antonio where people have three non satellite options and will soon have a fourth in Google Fiber.

[Vegas Halo Fan]

My main issue with the premium pay services is the programming. I don't currently subscribe to any of them. I am in the third month of a 90-day free trial of Cinemax (DirecTV threw this in when I upgraded my equipment, hoping that I will keep it). I have yet to see a movie on the program guide less than ten years old, and over the weekend they ran Monty Python's The Meaning of Life, which was shot over 30 years ago. They also ran The Shining. Not that these are bad movies, but I would like something a little more current if I'm paying extra for the privilege.

[Brandon]

Yeah, that's what I was saying. Their movies generally suck. They include 1-3 new movies a month and the rest suck. However, TV is taking off big time with story telling.......Sopranos started it, then Breaking Bad, Game of Thrones, The Wire, Mad Men, etc. and most of the TV viewing audiences recognize this and aren't into movies as much (sure the average teenager is going to see Transformers).....TV is just too good nowadays.

[Tank]

My main issue with the premium pay services is the programming. I don't currently subscribe to any of them. I am in the third month of a 90-day free trial of Cinemax (DirecTV threw this in when I upgraded my equipment, hoping that I will keep it). I have yet to see a movie on the program guide less than ten years old, and over the weekend they ran Monty Python's The Meaning of Life, which was shot over 30 years ago. They also ran The Shining. Not that these are bad movies, but I would like something a little more current if I'm paying extra for the privilege.

 

this is exactly my bone of contention with the movie channels. the list of movies is pure drek. i can't believe the lack of quality, and that it's spread out over their fifteen channels night after night after night. there's hardly any movies worth watching. if it wasn't for Homeland, i wouldn't have showtime. as soon as the season is over, i'm canceling the channel. what a waste of money.

[InsideThePark]

will the streaming service have on demand? That's where all the good shit is at.

[nate]

I have HBO for the original content.  Sopranos, Newsroom, Boardwalk Empire, GoT, Sonic Highways, etc.

[Jay]

My main issue with the premium pay services is the programming. I don't currently subscribe to any of them. I am in the third month of a 90-day free trial of Cinemax (DirecTV threw this in when I upgraded my equipment, hoping that I will keep it). I have yet to see a movie on the program guide less than ten years old, and over the weekend they ran Monty Python's The Meaning of Life, which was shot over 30 years ago. They also ran The Shining. Not that these are bad movies, but I would like something a little more current if I'm paying extra for the privilege.

The only reason I have Cinemax is for Strike Back but it's a colossal waste of money to pay for it the rest of the time. That's my problem in general: we carry these expensive pay channels not for the movies but for certain shows that we watch maybe five months out of the year.

[Brandon]

When I was talking to my rep, she said a lot of people just sign up and cancel the channel for a certain show and it's normal to them.

You figure a season for a show is about 12 episodes. Just sign up and then take it off when the season of Game of Thrones, Ray Donovan, etc. are done.

We should be doing that, but enough the HBO Go app too much on other devices in and out of the house.

[nate]

When I was talking to my rep, she said a lot of people just sign up and cancel the channel for a certain show and it's normal to them.

You figure a season for a show is about 12 episodes. Just sign up and then take it off when the season of Game of Thrones, Ray Donovan, etc. are done.

We should be doing that, but enough the HBO Go app too much on other devices in and out of the house.

 

And the HBO On Demand on DirecTV has every show HBO has ever made plus all the movies they are currently showing and a lot of old ones.  It is totally worth it to me.

[InsideThePark]

I'm assuming it will be like HBO GO, which is 100% on demand.  

 

I wouldn't even bother to stream the channels live.  Ever.

yeah it wasn't long after I posted that I realized it was a dumb question. Gotta think these things through, itp.

[RallyMo]

CBS and Showtime will follow HBO's lead, apparently.