# Anyone ordered HBO streaming without a cable service provider? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [December 21, 2015, 1:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-ordered-hbo-streaming-without-a-cable-service-provider/740965 "2015-12-21T01:58:12Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 14\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2015, 1:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-ordered-hbo-streaming-without-a-cable-service-provider/740965/1 "2015-12-21T01:58:12Z")
I went to the HBO website, and it referred me to Amazon to order. Except I can’t find anything at Amazon to subscribe, except an Android app so I can run an HBO service on my phone. Well, I don’t want to watch HBO on my phone. I want to watch it on my PC, or shunt the video from it to my TV. Do I have to subscribe to something else like Prime to get HBO? Or, what am I missing? ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2015, 2:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-ordered-hbo-streaming-without-a-cable-service-provider/740965/2 "2015-12-21T02:15:31Z")
You may be confusing HBO Go, the streaming service available to those who subscribe to the HBO cable channel, with HBO Now, the stand-alone streaming service that doesn’t require a cable/satellite subscription. ---
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2015, 2:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-ordered-hbo-streaming-without-a-cable-service-provider/740965/3 "2015-12-21T02:18:25Z")
No I’m not. I don’t see anything about hbo now on the hbo site except that i can subscribe at Amazon. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2015, 2:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-ordered-hbo-streaming-without-a-cable-service-provider/740965/4 "2015-12-21T02:24:21Z")
Going to the [HBO Now website](https://order.hbonow.com/providers), I see that it’s available on the Apple App Store, Google Play store, Amazon, Verizon or via a Roku player. The only payment option involving a cable company is Optimum. Do any of those work for you? ---
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2015, 2:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-ordered-hbo-streaming-without-a-cable-service-provider/740965/5 "2015-12-21T02:33:52Z")
I know it’s supposed to be available through amazon. How? ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2015, 2:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-ordered-hbo-streaming-without-a-cable-service-provider/740965/6 "2015-12-21T02:38:43Z")
I take it “HBO Now” doesn’t come up in the Amazon search results? ---
**Author:** ![Alley\_Dweller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alley_dweller/32/430_2.png) [@Alley\_Dweller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alley_Dweller)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2015, 2:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-ordered-hbo-streaming-without-a-cable-service-provider/740965/7 "2015-12-21T02:39:05Z")
Since you say you don’t have cable service, I will leave out the options for subscribing through Verizon or Optimum. The only way to subscriber through amazon is first to download the app from amazon to your phone or tablet. Then subscribe to the service through your app. Once you have done that, you can watch on your computer by going to [hbonow.com](http://hbonow.com) and using the email address and password that you used when registering in your app. And, yes, it’s annoying and stupid. ---
**Author:** ![Reply](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/reply/32/15952_2.png) [@Reply](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reply)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2015, 2:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-ordered-hbo-streaming-without-a-cable-service-provider/740965/8 "2015-12-21T02:49:43Z")
Yeah, it’s a stupid set of hoops to jump through. If you have an iPhone/iPad (or a friend with one), you can also make an iTunes account and use their phone to sign up. Once your’e signed up, you never have to touch the device again unless you want to cancel your account; you can watch it just fine on your computer after you’re signed up. ---
**Author:** ![usedtobe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ec9cab/32.png) [@usedtobe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/usedtobe)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2015, 8:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-ordered-hbo-streaming-without-a-cable-service-provider/740965/9 "2015-12-21T08:16:26Z")
Ah gee, Wally: I don’t even have a smart phone (or even a dumb one, for that matter). How am I ever going to see HBO again? Bummer. (I still use Yahoo for email. It has taken to interrupting the login with a prompt for a phone number so they can SMS me instructions to recover a lost login token. I don’t even know what SMS is, let alone want one. - me, the last of the land-line only breed ---
**Author:** ![Alley\_Dweller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alley_dweller/32/430_2.png) [@Alley\_Dweller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alley_Dweller)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2015, 9:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-ordered-hbo-streaming-without-a-cable-service-provider/740965/10 "2015-12-21T09:22:20Z")
> [@usedtobe](#): > > Ah gee, Wally: I don’t even have a smart phone (or even a dumb one, for that matter). How am I ever going to see HBO again? Buy a Roku. There is an option to subscribe through Roku. Once you have done this, you can then watch on your computer without using the Roku. > [@](#): > > Bummer. > > (I still use Yahoo for email. It has taken to interrupting the login with a prompt for a phone number so they can SMS me instructions to recover a lost login token. > I don’t even know what SMS is, let alone want one. > > - me, the last of the land-line only breed SMS=Short message service. Regular people call it “texting.” Be grateful that you are grandfathered into yahoo. Currently, there is NO way to open a yahoo account without having a cell phone capable of texting. And they have blocked all of the texting simulators you can find on the internet. You might find some posts on the internet claiming that they have found a trick to get around the cell phone requirement, but yahoo has effectively plugged all of those loopholes. They absolutely don’t want any customers who won’t share their cell phone numbers with them. If only they could apply the same sort of zeal towards making their email reliable and user-friendly… ---
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2015, 11:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-ordered-hbo-streaming-without-a-cable-service-provider/740965/11 "2015-12-21T11:22:11Z")
> [@Alley\_Dweller](#): > > Since you say you don’t have cable service, I will leave out the options for subscribing through Verizon or Optimum. > > The only way to subscriber through amazon is first to download the app from amazon to your phone or tablet. Then subscribe to the service through your app. > > Once you have done that, you can watch on your computer by going to [hbonow.com](http://hbonow.com) and using the email address and password that you used when registering in your app. > > And, yes, it’s annoying and stupid. This is what I neeed. Thanks! ---
**Author:** ![usedtobe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ec9cab/32.png) [@usedtobe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/usedtobe)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2015, 10:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-ordered-hbo-streaming-without-a-cable-service-provider/740965/12 "2015-12-21T22:41:53Z")
> [@Alley\_Dweller](#): > > … Currently, there is NO way to open a yahoo account without having a cell phone capable of texting. … Yeah, I suspected that was where they were going - the only way to logon without a phone number is a “Skip _for now_” link. The link is getting smaller and smaller. ---
**Author:** ![Ornery\_Bob](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/da6949/32.png) [@Ornery\_Bob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ornery_Bob)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2015, 10:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-ordered-hbo-streaming-without-a-cable-service-provider/740965/13 "2015-12-21T22:49:28Z")
I have HBO-Now stand alone service and I pay for it through iTunes. FWIW, the app kinda sucks, but the service is excellent, especially if you have a hot connection. I have a 25Mbps FIOS connection and HBO is rock steady 99% of the time. ---
**Author:** ![Robert163](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/4af34b/32.png) [@Robert163](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robert163)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2015, 12:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-ordered-hbo-streaming-without-a-cable-service-provider/740965/14 "2015-12-22T00:29:05Z")
I had the same damn problem and I hate it!!! The, put it on your smart phone and then and only then can you go to hbo dot com to watch it Same shuffle between HBO/Amazon too…