Apple in Talks to Bring HBO Go to the Apple TV

[HobeSoundDarryl]

Originally Posted by Bill Killer

Both Netflix and Hulu have figured it out, in my case.

Netflix won't stay at $8 as other large Studio deals come up for renewal. Remember Starzz? That was just the beginning. As soon as Netflix begins to raise the price, Hulu will follow.

And HBO alone is already at a price almost 2X the cost of Netflix now. That's where this goes.

[Bill Killer]

Originally Posted by HobeSoundDarryl

Netflix won't stay at $8 as other large Studio deals come up for renewal. Remember Starzz? That was just the beginning. As soon as Netflix begins to raise the price, Hulu will follow.

When we get to that point, I'll worry about it.

[HobeSoundDarryl]

Again, if people are willing to torrent, they'll probably never "get to that point".

But then, there's the rest of the world.

[Bill Killer]

Originally Posted by HobeSoundDarryl

Again, if people are willing to torrent, they'll probably never "get to that point".

But then, there's the rest of the world.

I torrent. I also purchase Blu-Rays. Oftentimes, the content overlaps.

[TOYSTER17]

Originally Posted by David Sharpe

Rumor is, that HBO is planning to this very thing to combat Netflix original programming.

I've read the complete opposite of that. I do know they were launching HBO Go in Nordic countries without a cable subscription back in October but it was delayed, so I don't know if it has been. And it definitely was to compete with Netflix, but I believe it has to do with how cable channels work over there, so it's more of an exception.

[wlossw]

If I still have to pay the cable company, who cares? I already have hbo on demand on my pvr.

[PDXoPDX]

Originally Posted by HobeSoundDarryl

If the masses go that way, the creation of great new content will end. We all can't steal everything and yet expect more of what is being stolen to just keep on coming.

The masses won't, but I think there are enough of us out there who are unhappy with the current system that content providers will have to change their business models. Sure $7.99 is too low, but $75+ is also silly. I'd rather risk legal threats or simply stop watching than pay what they're asking. How much will content creators get then? There's a wonderful world outside of my living room.

[CrAkD]

ironic i was just fighting with hbo go last night trying to get it to work on the apple tv with mirroring or whatever. i gave up and renewed my xbox live account and watched it on there.

[mrsir2009]

Slowly making progress

[carl0sian]

just put iOs on the Apple TV with its full fledged AppStore. That would be the solution to everyone's problems.

[Anonymous Freak]

For the love of the seven, HBO, don't make an HBO subscription through cable/satellite mandatory!

I gave up on cable/satellite years ago, yet my wife loves Game of Thrones. On top of it, HBO doesn't make them legally available via any non-cable/satellite-subscription method for a full year. We'll pay you directly for them. iTunes, HBO Go, Blu-ray, whatever! Just make them available in a timely fashion!

The first season, we seriously hunted for a legal way to watch it without paying our cable company $80 a month. We (okay, she) would even have been willing to pay $20-$30/month, for just the one show!

But, nope. The Pirate Bay it was.

[jwdsail]

NASCAR Raceview and Racebuddy, along with some Indy, ALMS, WRC, FIA WTC...

Come on Apple.. The only reason I bother with cable "TV" is motorsports.. The rest is already easily available via Netflix, Amazon Prime, and iTunes.. Get some decent motorsports content on the AppleTV so I can kill my cable bill down to local content (weather) and the Weather Chanel!

[flux73]

Originally Posted by HobeSoundDarryl

That is how it would have to be done. And if so, where's Apple been? It's not like the cash hoard is just showing up now. And we've seen these cable tv killer rumors for what... about 3+ years now?

This is basically how Netflix has been doing their deals for several years now, so it's not like it's a new idea that only Apple could innovate now.

Timing? If the Apple TV is in the final testing stages and they're preparing for 2014 release, right now would be a good time to really add onto their Apple TV user base, so there is instant high demand the moment it comes out.

[HobeSoundDarryl]

Originally Posted by Anonymous Freak

For the love of the seven, HBO, don't make an HBO subscription through cable/satellite mandatory!

I gave up on cable/satellite years ago, yet my wife loves Game of Thrones. On top of it, HBO doesn't make them legally available via any non-cable/satellite-subscription method for a full year. We'll pay you directly for them. iTunes, HBO Go, Blu-ray, whatever! Just make them available in a timely fashion!

The first season, we seriously hunted for a legal way to watch it without paying our cable company $80 a month. We (okay, she) would even have been willing to pay $20-$30/month, for just the one show!

But, nope. The Pirate Bay it was.

Game of thrones is in the ITunes Store and has been.

[flux73]

Originally Posted by HobeSoundDarryl

I love the dream of it... But foresee the very real issues.

Don't give up the dream yet. This has got to be Apple's #1 motivation right now. If it ends up happening, it will be the single biggest news to come from Apple since the original iPhone announcement. I really think it's THAT big. It's the crack in the dam. And once it breaks, it will open up the floodgates and all the other content providers will be beating down Apple's door to get in on the action. That war chest of $137 billion is going to come in plenty handy now to blow up that dam.

[jwdsail]

Originally Posted by HobeSoundDarryl

Game of thrones is in the ITunes Store and has been.

I think you missed where he said, "in a timely matter", IOW, not almost a year later...

[NCWildcat]

If there was a viable sports option on the Apple TV, I think I'd be ready to cut the cable. Or if Time Warner would just let Apple TV be my cable box so I wouldn't have to navigate their terrible interface and deal with that damn Cisco box freezing all the time.

[flux73]

Originally Posted by HobeSoundDarryl

Game of thrones is in the ITunes Store and has been.

Not while the season is running. You have to wait till it's released on DVD before they release it to iTunes.

----------

Originally Posted by NCWildcat

If there was a viable sports option on the Apple TV, I think I'd be ready to cut the cable. Or if Time Warner would just let Apple TV be my cable box so I wouldn't have to navigate their terrible interface and deal with that damn Cisco box freezing all the time.

This is why I say ESPN is the other half of the strategy for Apple to conquer TV. If they lock in HBO and ESPN, done. The game is over before it's even begun. How much longer will the Discovery channel, Food Network, or SyFy hold out when cable TV subscribers start to dwindle and AppleTV users surge? They have no loyalty to cable providers other than they're a sure source of revenue for now. When Apple becomes that option? They have ZERO reason not to explore it.

[nilk]

I, for one, would like to see HBO Go on the Apple TV. Sure, I can Airplay it, but that is a suboptimal solution and unnecessarily ties up one of my devices and is not very reliable.

I wish Apple would just open up the Apple TV in general for app submissions. In it's current state, the Apple TV is such wasted potential.

[HobeSoundDarryl]

Originally Posted by flux73

Don't give up the dream yet. This has got to be Apple's #1 motivation right now. If it ends up happening, it will be the single biggest news to come from Apple since the original iPhone announcement. I really think it's THAT big. It's the crack in the dam. And once it breaks, it will open up the floodgates and all the other content providers will be beating down Apple's door to get in on the action. That war chest of $137 billion is going to come in plenty handy now to blow up that dam.

Again, I love the dream of it. But even if the deals can somehow be struck with the content creators (and the weight of the entire cable & satt industry risk is somehow mitigated enough for the creators to take the chance), there is still the "last mile" problem of the cableTV-replacement depending on the broadband pipes owned by the very same players that like the cable empire "as is". As such, this is nothing like the iPhone revolution.

Sure, Apple can build a dazzling piece of hardware and a great bit of integrated software (just like they did with iPhone) but the established "empire" of the service provider was not disrupted (we're not paying AT&T, Verizon, etc substantially less than their service cost before iPhone; I think I read somewhere that we are actually paying more on average than pre-iPhone rates).

In this dream, it's even worse. As iPhone was moving toward launch, Apple had a lot of competitors with which to potentially partner. And several of those partners had national reach too. In this cableTV killer dream, many of us consumers have 1 provider of broadband, maybe 2 if we're lucky. How many of us have a broadband provider that is not also in the cable TV business? Even the oft-quote google fiber experiement in Kansas city involves broadband and "broadband +". What's the "+"? I bet you can guess without looking it up.

Even if the content creators could be moved to play ball, how can we imagine the cable TV middlemen rolling over when Apple's solution must flow through their pipes? I've seen this same kind of movie before. iPad launched with "unlimited" data and then it quickly became tiered plans because of "high bandwidth" users. Why do we imagine this can be any different? $100 cable + $40 broadband now. Dream fulfilled. $10 Apple al-a-carte, commercial-free replacement + $200 broadband bill then.

The other massive mismatch is the illusion that we consumers are going to end up with everything we want for substantially less than we pay now. If the new model is Content Creators + Apple + Us and we are going to pay substantially less than we do now, who is going to take the hit? It can't be Apple (else, why bother?). And again, even if we dream up a way for the Content end to take the hit (and that the quality of their work would somehow not go down... and that there would still be plenty of financial incentive for funding new pilots each year... etc), it's still got to flow through cable TV-owned broadband pipes.

I love the dream. Love it! But these are real problems that aren't solved by big innovations at Apple HQ. The missing rumor is some bypass-the-middleman way to link us to iCloud. When that one is flying, the dream will be less far-fetched to me.

[castlema]

I hope this comes to pass, it would be a nice addition to the Apple TV.

[Anonymous Freak]

Originally Posted by jwdsail

I think you missed where he said, "in a timely matter", IOW, not almost a year later...

Exactly. Season 1 went on iTunes only a month before Season 2 started to air.

Season 3 is slated to start airing on March 31st, yet season 2 still isn't available on iTunes or disc.

[Lancer]

So I can only assume this will be for those in the US?

Once again everyone else gets a 2nd rate Apple TV with less content

[castlema]

Originally Posted by wlossw

If I still have to pay the cable company, who cares? I already have hbo on demand on my pvr.

HBO Go has a much larger selection than HBO on Demand, at least on DirecTV.

[iRCL]

This is so lackluster. Seriously who cares about TV