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Wow. Let me pay for this separately and the last piece of the stop paying so much for tv is in place. Netflix, Hulu, and HBO go. Way less than 100 bucks a month.
 
I suspect all the content providers will watch this closely.. if it's remotely a success I can see them giving Apple the finger and running their own free-apps with services.

Still 720p..
 
I wish they and everyone else would just put all their shows À la carte on iTunes. It would save a ton of money. :(

These are waters the media companies want to tread lightly into. They're quite afraid of the ramifications of losing the "bundling shield". It's one of the reasons why the Comcasts of the world want NBC and the like. They don't want you to have these a la carte choices, and will only be dragged kicking and screaming into the future. Do your part. Kill your cable subscription.
 
I wish they and everyone else would just put all their shows À la carte on iTunes. It would save a ton of money. :(
Perhaps you're unaware of this, but HBO desires to transfer money from your pocket to their pocket. Saving you money would be counterproductive. :p
 
YES!!

YOU CAN HELP FIGHT THE SYSTEM

DON'T BUY INTO THESE SERVICES

FORCE THEM INTO RELENTING AND

GOING WITH A PREMIUM SERVICE LIKE

NETFLIX (which you already own) I honestly don't want a la carte choices I don't want to pay more.


This has been a public service announcement.... doubt it will work but worth a try. I for one own Nextflix and will not subscribe to another video providing service.
 
Netflix on iPhone?

I've got to say, Hulu+ looks fantastic on the iPhone 4. I've been hoping that Netflix comes to the iPhone. Anybody heard anything?
 
I've never even heard of HBO Go.

Hopefully this will be available to all HBO subscribers, regardless of cable provider. When I go to the HBO Go website, it says that it's only available for Comcast and Verizon FIOs.

Hey Time Warner: get on the friggin' trolley.

yeah, this is going to do me and all of the other satellite HBO subscribers a lot of good.
 
That's where I'm at too, this garbage about having to have a full digital cable package plus the HBO TV service to use it is asinine and backwards. Basically you're looking at well over $100 a month if you just want to watch HBO. HBO has great content that I would gladly pay the $15 per month rate for, but it's not worth all that.

I'm betting that HBO will eventually be available individually. However, I'm guessing that it will be at $29.99 per month or higher--not the $15 you pay to a cable company.

Content providers are looking at devices like the iPad as a way to *raise* their prices, not keep them the same.
 
Yeah... the market will decide, but ....

I'm with you on this one. The cable and satellite networks keep raising their prices year after year, due to "contract re-negotiations" with the networks they carry. Meanwhile, the consumer pays well over $1,200 per year in most cases, just for the "privilege" of having a "decent selection of channels" to choose from that includes more than just locals, a weather channel or two, home shopping networks, and a few "themed" stations offering re-runs of law/cop shows or game shows.

Even after you shell out all that money? The quality of the content is mediocre.... Sure, the premium movie channels put together a good series or two. But they HAD to, just to remain viable! Remember when HBO or Showtime were purchased on the merits of them showing recent movies alone? Hah! No more, with far cheaper, better options out there like Netflix or Redbox rentals - or even "video on demand" from local cable providers!

I don't know about everyone else, but when I sit back and think about the value they're giving me for my money? There's NO WAY I have enough free time to even watch enough of their content to justify $1,000-2,000 per year expenditures on it! Heck, I can barely justify the $95 or so per year I'm paying for XM satellite radio in my car right now!

Thanks to the poor economy, my work just announced we all get pay cuts. I've got to compensate somewhere, so you can bet cable TV is one of the places I'm looking.... Better to just "pay as you go", when you actually WANT to view something, than to pay for them to constantly pump mediocre to poor content in to your home that you're usually not even viewing.


YES!!

YOU CAN HELP FIGHT THE SYSTEM

DON'T BUY INTO THESE SERVICES

FORCE THEM INTO RELENTING AND

GOING WITH A PREMIUM SERVICE LIKE

NETFLIX (which you already own) I honestly don't want a la carte choices I don't want to pay more.


This has been a public service announcement.... doubt it will work but worth a try. I for one own Nextflix and will not subscribe to another video providing service.
 
Wow. Let me pay for this separately and the last piece of the stop paying so much for tv is in place. Netflix, Hulu, and HBO go. Way less than 100 bucks a month.
Local sports for some of us. Even when that one team you want to follow is available on a legal stream almost everywhere, its always blacked out locally. :(

Still with each of these new, legal, options the cost of keeping cable for that one team goes up and as price goes up, demand goes down...
 
Wow, $175/mo for cable?
I hope that comes with a happy ending.

I'm pissed I pay $120 for Dish+Cable Broadband total (will be less when I move).

Not at all my dear.
It is quite ridiculous and it is only due to a recent life event that I find myself watching at least one or two channels more often. I watch a handful of HBO and Showtime content (their original series shows), History, Discovery, HGTV etc. Those channels you cannot get without paying into their other crap. I have a DVR in my office and a TIVO on my living room. Unfortunately I tried to get rid of the DVR, which only saves $11 a month, but they told me to kick rocks saying I was in a contract.

Digital phone is for work, cable internet is for porn and work (not at the same time) and then TV. If I rid myself of the TV part then I am still left with a $75 bill but according to Time Warner if I break out of the contract, after paying the ETF, my other services will go from $40 and $20 to $40 and $50. It is still worth it to save $85 but in the grand scheme of things saving $85 a month doesn't really help a greater cause.

What to do, what to do!

Anyway, pardon the thread derailment. I do think if HBO does this and Showtime follows then it will be great but if it's only open to subscribers then it doesn't really help people like me who watch more portable media than anything.

On a side note, I want a ***** football package on my iPad. Like MLB TV.
 
I didn't know about this HBO Go and I recently switched to Fios. I guess I should check into it. I don't have an iPad though. HBO's original series haven't been too great for some time, IMO. They all seem to start off great, but then the writing just goes bad. I can't even get through an entire episode of True Blood anymore. I still watch Entourage, but I don't even know why. Sorry, but I really don't care about Turtle's business ventures. Turtle sucks. The show Hung is just dull to me. Maybe women like it?
 
I was just talking about this the other night...

...it definitely seems like the logical next step for any content gateway. I just recently started my Hulu+ subscription and have been enjoying the ability to "pick up and play" random content at home, at work, and on my iPhone.

I take HBO more seriously though. Their content, especially their original series, are not "pick up and play" to me. I invest time in these stories and plots, and would want to make every attempt to enjoy them in the way the writers intended.

But, to require me to have HBO through a cable provider? Major issue. I don't do cable. I don't do $80+ per month for 300 channels, 96% of which I'll never watch, PLUS commercials.

1. Give me a way to pay HBO directly. No cable provider required.
2. Allow me to view content on my Mac, iPhone and, someday, AppleTV.
3. Make the viewing queues cohesive, well thought out, and easily manageable.
4. (bonus) Allow me to purchase pay-per-view content with the HBO GO account for the occasional fight night or stand up special.

...do all that (with AppleTV and option 4 down the road), and I'm down for about $20 or $25 per month.
 
I didn't know about this HBO Go and I recently switched to Fios. I guess I should check into it. I don't have an iPad though. HBO's original series haven't been too great for some time, IMO. They all seem to start off great, but then the writing just goes bad. I can't even get through an entire episode of True Blood anymore. I still watch Entourage, but I don't even know why. Sorry, but I really don't care about Turtle's business ventures. Turtle sucks. The show Hung is just dull to me. Maybe women like it?

And, for the record (and slightly OT), it's not really about Turtle's business ventures. It's about Turtle's desire to stop leaching off of Vince and do something for himself. A real-world problem I'm sure many of us have coped with at one point or another. Entourage can't just be all pot smoking and boobies.
 
I'm with you on this one. The cable and satellite networks keep raising their prices year after year, due to "contract re-negotiations" with the networks they carry. Meanwhile, the consumer pays well over $1,200 per year in most cases, just for the "privilege" of having a "decent selection of channels" to choose from that includes more than just locals, a weather channel or two, home shopping networks, and a few "themed" stations offering re-runs of law/cop shows or game shows.

Even after you shell out all that money? The quality of the content is mediocre.... Sure, the premium movie channels put together a good series or two. But they HAD to, just to remain viable! Remember when HBO or Showtime were purchased on the merits of them showing recent movies alone? Hah! No more, with far cheaper, better options out there like Netflix or Redbox rentals - or even "video on demand" from local cable providers!

I don't know about everyone else, but when I sit back and think about the value they're giving me for my money? There's NO WAY I have enough free time to even watch enough of their content to justify $1,000-2,000 per year expenditures on it! Heck, I can barely justify the $95 or so per year I'm paying for XM satellite radio in my car right now!

Thanks to the poor economy, my work just announced we all get pay cuts. I've got to compensate somewhere, so you can bet cable TV is one of the places I'm looking.... Better to just "pay as you go", when you actually WANT to view something, than to pay for them to constantly pump mediocre to poor content in to your home that you're usually not even viewing.

I'm sorry to hear about your pay cuts. I discontinued cable service almost a year ago and I've adjusted just fine to life without it. I got an antenna and found out that I get decent, full HD reception for free over the air from all the major networks. I also have Netflix and in combination with online free content I still don't have time to watch everything.

Prices have gone up so much for cable in my area its getting a bit ridiculous--and on top of that the providers try and lock you into contracts for a measly $20 discount or something. Cable is not a utility like electricity or gas--you don't need it.
 
One step closer to being able to subscribe to specific channels. Tired of this $200 a month for **** channels I never watch.
 
I don't get why it's illegal if I'm already paying for the content?

While it is very much illegal to download copyrighted work from any source that is not authorized to distribute said work .... This question is still a very interesting one to debate.

I owned a ton of albums and yet if I were to find a source that had the albums audio online why shouldn't I be able to download it.

I own tons of books... I am within my right to scan them into ebook format and yet I'm not permitted to download the text from someone who already went thru the trouble of scanning it.

Heck, I can go to the thrift shop and buy handfuls of CDs for a buck each and rip till my hearts content or buy boxes of books for pennies on the dollar and scan till the cows come home...

It's this 'fine line' that makes people question the whole idea of what's legal and what's not... But to play it safe... You are much better off assuming it's not okay to download from some random file service.

An interesting legal question is this... When you download movies or music from iTunes or Amazon, Netflix, hulu etc do those sites present any PROOF that they have a legal agreement with the content owner to distribute said works? If not then how as a member of the Internet am I to determine if what I'm doing is really LEGAL or not. Oh and before someone says "you just know", somehow I don't see that argument holding up in a court of law.
 
Local sports for some of us. Even when that one team you want to follow is available on a legal stream almost everywhere, its always blacked out locally. :(

Still with each of these new, legal, options the cost of keeping cable for that one team goes up and as price goes up, demand goes down...

You are right. That is really the last cog in the machine. I get the NFL package from Directv. Only way to see my team since I live on the opposite side of the country. But I could turn off my Directv except during the season. Still save some money. Then turn it back on each year. A pain. But a new option.
 
HBO content--to each his own...

I didn't know about this HBO Go and I recently switched to Fios. I guess I should check into it. I don't have an iPad though. HBO's original series haven't been too great for some time, IMO. They all seem to start off great, but then the writing just goes bad. I can't even get through an entire episode of True Blood anymore. I still watch Entourage, but I don't even know why. Sorry, but I really don't care about Turtle's business ventures. Turtle sucks. The show Hung is just dull to me. Maybe women like it?

While I agree with you that Entourage has been less than compelling this year (though Ari is still great), couldn't disagree more on True Blood.

Season 2 sucked so much I stopped watching, but after a slightly slow start, Season 3 is better than ever. The last 10 mins of the last episode was the best it's ever been. I'd highly recommend you give it another look.

Back on the topic of this thread: I'm extremely disappointed that HBO GO is unavailable to DirecTV subscribers. They have my bucks simply for NFL Sunday Ticket.

Despite being driven to it by need (such as my DVR missed an episode), I find I really can't abide watching shows on my computer. But my iPad? That's a whole 'nother story. Thinking of starting an online petition, but not sure whether it needs to be addressed to DirecTV or HBO...

--mark
 
Excellent! HBO is the best thing going on my channel lineup. High quality programing that is free of Viagra adds. Money well spent. And with programs like "Band of Brothers", "True Blood", "The Pacific", "John Adams" and the coming "Boardwalk", I get my money's worth. Checking these out on my iPad is just a bonus.
 
This is a cool service....now let me sign up to an online only plan without having to deal with cable or satellite tv and you will have me as a customer.

However, if I have to deal with cable or satellite tv you will never have me as a customer.

This will never happen. HBO is owned by Time Warner, who also deliver said cable service (not to mention internet service, up for a net neutrality conversion?). Why would they cannibalize their cable service to deliver HBO to non-subscribers? This is in response to customer demand to make their television content mobile, and also to make cable service more attractive in an increasingly difficult market. The whole reason to roll your own service instead of going with Netflix is so that you can require subscription to cable.
 
while this is a good move in general I won't use it. I don't want subscription services. I want to pay for each individual movie or episode. And I want to be able to download it. Bring the entire HBO content to itunes and be done with it.
 
The only reason HBO has to deliver special App for iPad is inability of iPad to run Flash. While this is going to be appreciated by iPad users, in a long run this is a dead end for computing industry (and a society at large). With introduction of Android, BlackBerry, Phone 7, MeeGo and other tablets will the companies have to develop applications for all of them? This is why Internet browser was invented - as an universal tool for delivering the content. This concept will prevail just because it is much more economical.
 
How about showtime.. I'd love to get penn and tellers bs on my ipad... that show cracks me up
 
And, for the record (and slightly OT), it's not really about Turtle's business ventures. It's about Turtle's desire to stop leaching off of Vince and do something for himself. A real-world problem I'm sure many of us have coped with at one point or another. Entourage can't just be all pot smoking and boobies.

And since when can somebody start importing liquor and selling it in US stores w/out the FDA approval? Something is in that tequila that should show up in Vince's blood tests; the blow doesn't stay in very long.

Back to topic, someone posted that the HBO GO is an ADDITIONAL $19.99! I looked and can't find that anywhere; anyone else see that? Then again I'm at work and can't view that fancast.com link.
 
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