Finally.
HBO has announced a plan to offer streaming access to their TV shows without a cable subscription. For years, stand-alone access to cable networks has been considered anathema among cable providers. But the writing has been on the wall for a while, and if anyone can make it work it is HBO, whose content is sought and stolen at incredible rates. (Game of Thrones, for example, is the most pirated program in history).
The move from HBO is less a kindness to those of us who refuse to purchase cable (NEVER!) but rather, a strategy to get everyone watching HBO to pay for HBO.
CEO of HBO Richard Pepler said at the Time Warner Inc. Investor meeting: “In 2015, we will launch a stand-alone, over-the-top, HBO service in the United States. We will work with our current partners. And, we will explore models with new partners. All in, there are 80 million homes that do not have HBO and we will use all means at our disposal to go after them.”
It’s hard to blame a company for wanting viewers to pay for content. HBO has been plenty gracious about the massive amounts of Game of Thrones thievery that has been going on for years, perhaps because building a devoted audience with or without cable makes a non-cable HBO stream even more attractive?
One interesting question is whether the pirates who have been clamoring for non-cable access to HBO will actually subscribe. The ease of illegal access to Game of Thrones, or any show, is now the real competition for HBO.
Either way, it’s time for us pirates to come into the light.
