HBO Coming To iTunes?

[MacRumors]

HBO programming will soon be coming to the iTunes store according to a report by Portfolio.com.

Apple is close to announcing it has signed a deal to sell HBO programs and movies on the iTunes website, according to HBO employees involved in executing the agreement.

The deal marks the first time that Apple has agreed to a separate price structure for a content provider, one of the employees said.

The HBO insiders said that the new service would be launched and announced simultaneously, most likely in a week or two.

The site speculates that the price structure could represent either a larger cut for HBO of the $1.99 price per episode, or perhaps a price above $1.99.

Portfolio.com notes that HBO has been slow in the past to provide content via new media, and this deal is due in part to pressure from HBO parent company Time Warner.

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[bjdku]

all falling into my master plan to rid myself of cable and satellite! Now if I could just figure out how to get espn without cable or sat....

[longofest]

Originally Posted by bjdku

all falling into my master plan to rid myself of cable and satellite! Now if I could just figure out how to get espn without cable or sat....

yeah... live sports doesn't really work (currently) with the iTunes model.

[guzhogi]

I hope this happens. There are/were a lot of good shows on HBO (The Sopranos, The Wire). If it goes above $1.99, I hope the extra $$$ goes to the writers editors, and the other "small people." None of these shows would be as good w/o them. If it's just going to the CEOs & whatever, that's just being greedy.

[DaBrain]

This is good news! The more competition the better!
My dream is to buy ONLY what I want. In other words programming alacarte! Sick of the cable satellite multiple tier system and paying for crap I don't even
want.

Hope to see this and many more deals materialize!

[pederg]

Entourage!! w00t!!

[Dorfdad]

Thirlled that HBO will be coming, but Apple needs to keep the pricing structure as it is. Currently the 1.99 per episode is outrageous for anyone with a mind.

For the cost of one season of a show you can pay your entire monthly cable bill and get a million more shows...

I wish it dropped to .99 per episode and I might be real happy!

[veeco3110]

Originally Posted by pederg

Entourage!! w00t!!

saw the title and was just about to post the same thign haha

[nagromme]

As long as HBO makes their money and Apple at least breaks even, I really hope Apple isn't forced to abandon the simplicity of a single price. (Not counting season pass discounts.)

Originally Posted by Dorfdad

For the cost of one season of a show you can pay your entire monthly cable bill and get a million more shows...

Depends on your habits, and whether iTunes even HAS the shows you want. But I would say just the opposite: buying shows on iTunes is HUGELY CHEAPER than getting cable for me. I added up how many full season passes (which of course means reruns at will forever too--unlike cable) I could buy for what cable costs in a year. Answer: a LOT more shows than I would ever watch.

Cable would not be a good value for me and my habits.

[kornyboy]

Wirelessly posted (iPhone: Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU like Mac OS X; en) AppleWebKit/420.1 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/3.0 Mobile/4A102 Safari/419.3)

I kind of like the $1.99 price for tv episodes. I do hope that this doesn't change. We will see I guess.

[dpcott]

Here's hoping for slightly older content, ie BAND OF BROTHERS!

[gmoney550]

Yawn... Bring on more iPhone rumors!!!

[touchyphone]

Originally Posted by pederg

Entourage!! w00t!!

x a million, love me some Drama and Turtle

[benmrii]

Dexter is on Showtime... wrong network!

[Suppy7]

Also late this summer when NFL training camp begins HBO is bringing back their "Hard Knocks" series, which follows a NFL team through their training camp -

This year is the Dallas Cowboys, and I don't have HBO but if this deal happens I'll be buying the season pass to that show!

[joeshell383]

Originally Posted by DaBrain

This is good news! The more competition the better!
My dream is to buy ONLY what I want. In other words programming alacarte! Sick of the cable satellite multiple tier system and paying for crap I don't even
want.

Hope to see this and many more deals materialize!

Your dream is to pay twice as much as cable/satellite for 1/2000th of the content, with no local or live programming even available at all?

[gmoney550]

Page 2 at best...

[MattG]

Sweet. I'd like to be able to just buy the next season of Curb (if there is one) without having to pay for HBO.

[Achiever]

Originally Posted by dpcott

Here's hoping for slightly older content, ie BAND OF BROTHERS!

Here's hoping for even OLDER content; Not Necessarily the News, the Appointments of Dennis Jennings, First & Ten, Dream On . . . . . man am I dating myself here.....

[twoodcc]

cool. this should help out the itunes store with videos. i hope this happens

[skellener]

You can listen to Real Time with Bill Maher for free through iTunes right now. Not really much to watch anyway. Just people sitting around and talking. I hope this doesn't mean the free podcast will go away.

[dwman]

Originally Posted by guzhogi

I hope this happens. There are/were a lot of good shows on HBO (The Sopranos, The Wire). If it goes above $1.99, I hope the extra $$$ goes to the writers editors, and the other "small people." None of these shows would be as good w/o them. If it's just going to the CEOs & whatever, that's just being greedy.

That was part of the whole hubub with the writers strike. They were being left out of internet/itunes sales. Hopefully the deal they struck will include a good chunk of gelt.

[italiano40]

i can't wait for sopranos on my ipod all the time!!!!

[akm3]

There is nothing that shows any evidence that Apple has changed its' pricing policy.

The author is speculating they MIGHT because they were able to sign HBO, who apparently was a hold out for flexible pricing.

It could just as easily be HBO folding to Apple's model.

Or Apple agreeing to pay more to HBO than other providers and eat the difference still maintaining a $1.99 cost.

Or other scenarios.

[Dorfdad]

I see HBO putting older shows on there and not current or new shows. They do not want to lose the fees they are getting from Cable Providers im sure..

I bet it will be pretty old seasons of shows..

OZZ, Curb, Sopranos etc.