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HBO's Apple TV Channel Shuts Down Today, Forcing All Users to Migrate to HBO Max
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Just talked to HBO Customer Service, evidently we were supposed to receive an email for 3 free months + $10/mo promo. I did not. They were unable to assist me further.
One big benefit is if you have family and share the subscriptions. Everyone in your Apple family will have access to the channel automatically so you don't need to pass around login credentials.
I must be missing something that's obvious here. Why are people getting bent out of shape about this? Why keep 2 different services up when you can just axe the old one? What are people getting pissy about here?
Originally for me it was because a streaming box (Roku/Apple/FireWire) was the only way to get Netflix and many other services. My reason for staying with Apple is the hope that they aren’t selling all my information to other companies so I get spammed by everyone. There are other reasons but that’s my primary one. You can own an Apple TV streaming box without subscribing to Apple TV streaming service. And they need to rename one or the other because a lot of people think you buy the box you HAVE to subscribe to the streaming service and vice-versa.
Actually Apple TV Channels are the most consumer-convenient way to go. Everything in in one place, the UI is the same across each channel, there are tvOS features like Picture in Picture and seeing show/movie info onscreen while you're watching,that Channels take advantage of that separate apps do not. Plus Channel content just tends to look better with its higher bitrate and loads content faster than most other apps. Not to mention we got two live feeds of HBO's East and West cable channels. Just a lot of backtracking being forced into Max now. Total loss for cordcutters.
I’ll mostly agree, but a lot of people have complained that it’s confusing to see Disney or Hulu or whoever on their Apple TV App. I think it’s handy. Netflix programming doesn’t show up on the Apple TV App although Netflix is offered.
I'll never understand why people find that confusing with the TV App. It's meant for universal search. Just look up what show or movie you want to watch and it'll give you the list of where to play it. And the TV App does a pretty good job advertising new big shows that debut on those apps. With Netflix they're just a hard-ass when it comes to the TV app. They chose to omit their content from Watch Next integration. But yeah I see the TV App as an alternative to Netflix where you can choose how much content you wanna pay for, rather than settling for one big package like Netflix does.
I like seeing movies/shows that I have paused watching and being able to restart it from the Apple TV App no matter where (except Netflix) I was watching it. And when new shows are available I can look in just 1 place- again, except for Netflix, and click and go. But I’ve seen people complain so maybe it’s the fact that services you DON’T subscribe to are also visible and searchable. I’m guessing here.
I never received any such e-mail, either. Fortunately my monthly billing for HBO through Apple was due today; I canceled the subscription through Apple and signed up for HBO Max through their site. No loss here, but this should not have happened this way.
sure it was. I don't live in the US, HBO(max) still not available in my country until this day! We're talking streaming services, they had a contract with SKY something here in Europe but I haven't owned a TV for twenty years and linear payTV I would never have paid for anyways, I like to watch what I want, when I want and where I want on a device of my choice. So yes, HBO still doesn't offer anything here, guess what happens to people not even being able to pay for it?... you guessed right, they'll watch it anyways.
Geofencing is a another annoying and totally user unfriendly culprit. A cancer of the free internet that started to pop up some years ago. I won't accept that either. Netflix tries that too for years not and I'm not having it (there's ways around it, like so many things).
If they don't want my money, they'll be pirated, I'm not being denied by stupid, totally consumer unfriendly rules that weren't there when the internet was a much better and liberal place.
Take movie release dates. For two decades now there is ZERO reason to not release movies globally on the same date. Many times the official start here was months or an entire year behind the US?... Instead of offering a stream, nothing is offered for ages. No offer?... well.. no offer no money! --> get it elsewhere!
The fact that looking through my emails, this one I got today about an hour ago that it was already shut down, is the first notice I got of them even mentioning this. Apple had zero problem renewing my auto pay for HBO just a few days earlier, with again, no notice they would be shutting off the service on any deadline they took my money for.
Rotation is definitely the way to go.
I’ve done a few annual subs for great deals (currently, I’m paying $7.95 total for Disney+ and Paramount+), but during that time I end up turning down other $.99 for a month deals, because I don’t have time to watch what I have.
Plus, I don’t have time to watch Hoopla or Kanopy from my library (which I get for free).
If you’re somewhere with decent reception, an antenna is a must too.
lol.
This isn't a new discovery ... remember CableTV? Yeah each channel got huge money from ads AND your bundled subscription from your Cable TV company.
The new discovery is NOT to bundle with others and ALL the proceeds go to them.
Cable TV was originally a commercial free way to watch TV. Did you forget?
My subscription just renewed yesterday. Guess I now have to figure out how to get a refund so I’m not charged twice. Or maybe I’ll just cancel.
really? What year was this?
Not since 73 when i was born it wasn't.
Heck I've watched Gilligan's Island (originals) on UHF with a studio TV that would always light up the Applause light on the top of my mother's Zenith. This shows not only captured applause by a live audience to be recorded, but also there are intermissions that allow for ... commercials.
No channel, no sub for me. I like having everything in one place.
Disney is an exception. Cant be without it
Disney is an exception. Cant be without it
HBO Max killed access to 'older' Samsung Smart TVs. I have a 5 year old Samsung 4K Smart TV and while I can still access Amazon Prime Movies and Netflix... not that it went from HBO to HBo Max, there is no longer an app available for my TV. It's ridiculous.
Well, I'm definitely in the 'broken' category. I subscribed through Apple last year. Yesterday, I got an email from Apple saying I could get HBOmax for $9.99 for three months before the $15 price kicked in. I redeemed it but something went wrong with the HBO side of things. I went to their help pages and tried to follow their instructions for recovering my account. One of the steps is logging out - and no matter what device I use, it simply does NOT let me do it.
I have a suspicion that it could be because, a year or two before subscribing through Apple, I did a free trial from the same email address and it might be colliding with that when trying to 'reset' thing. No response to my submission from their help pages yet - not even an automated acknowledgement.
I have a suspicion that it could be because, a year or two before subscribing through Apple, I did a free trial from the same email address and it might be colliding with that when trying to 'reset' thing. No response to my submission from their help pages yet - not even an automated acknowledgement.
Quite a few actually:
- Ability to download all content for offline viewing
- Can share with 6 other family members under your Apple ID with Family Sharing
- Some channels (Paramount+, AMC+, Showtime, STARZ, formerly HBO, etc.) come with live feeds of their cable channels.
- tvOS-wide Picture in Picture mode
- make use of the new Siri Remote’s iPod wheel-like jogging feature
- UI consistent across channels
- high bitrate for added quality
- no app switching, everything is played within the TV App
- very easy to sub/unsub at will
Think of the TV App as a Hulu or Netflix you can pick and choose what you want to pay for and watch. Using them compared to other services is just better. I wish for the day apps like Disney+, Peacock, and Discovery+ become channels. Them alongside Apple TV+ would make the TV App a cord cutting juggernaut compared to Hulu and Netflix.