So HBO Now, their new streaming service for cable cutters, will be launching next week. Something I’ve been waiting for since last summer. The only catch is, THEY’RE LAUNCH EXCLUSIVELY WITH APPLE!
So if ya’ want HBO streaming (For now anyway), ya’ gotta have an Apple product!
So screw you HBO!
If true, I endorse this pitting. Fuck HBO! I was.really looking forward to watching GoT, but I am not going to get a fucking ITUNES account or whatever to watch it.
According to his article
so maybe in 3 months it’ll open up to other methods.
Yeah, fuck those guys for bringing an innovative product to market that people want.
You don’t need an iTunes account, just an AppleTV apparently. They are nifty little devices; I highly recommend them. And they just dropped the price! 
I mean… you literally don’t lose any options you already had, and gained an additional option. Just because Apple paid HBO for the 3 month exclusive, you’re upset? Well. Why not get upset at Google or whoever else it is you support for not paying for the exclusive?
If anything, you should be mad at the content owners. The entire media landscape, and even legal landscape, is damaged because of them.
This may come as a shock to you but there are a whole segment of people out there can get whatever streaming services they want with out having to spring for an Apple product.
Streaming services have been around for a while now, so I don’t get where your getting this “innovative” from.
Not exactly. You can get HBO GO streaming on some other devices, including the Kindle TV, some of the Roku models, and certain smart tvs. They have it right now.
The only thing that’s exclusive to Apple for the next three months is HBO NOW - a new service that will let you sign up for HBO without needing a cable tv subscription. HBO GO requires a per-existing cable service.
Given that Apple TV is still the most limited streaming device (It’s missing Amazon Prime, Twitch & Acorn, to name a few) I still think people are better off with one of the other choices (I have a Roku).
HBO Go doesn’t do any good to cable cutters as I indicated in my op.
Premium cable channels without requiring a cable subscription is innovative. Not really technologically, but getting all the legal and licensing ducks in a row to make this happen required moving mountains of bureaucratic and contractual cruft built up over 40 years.
“This is bullshit!”
— Guy on a plane sitting next to Louis CK
In that regard yes, but signing an exclusive deal with Apple helps accomplish none of that.
My guess is they are not yet ready for the onslaught of subscribers when they launch. So they’re going the Apple route to make it a slow ramp up.
I got it.
They are attempting to keep costs down to you the ‘eventual’ user, by soaking Apple for big money, for a three month exclusive. They get gazillions, when the three months is up, cost will be lower. Possibly enough to make it affordable to more of the masses.
Plus there were a shit ton of things that were available to pc users well before Mac users, over the last two decades. Suck it up, buttercup!
How do you know? Perhaps Apple’s exclusive provided enough revenue upfront to make all the work profitable. Maybe Apple is guaranteeing them a subscription floor for the first three months and that’s why they did it. If nobody was offering an exclusive deal we may never have gotten HBONow at all.
That’s actually a good point. I mean we have no way of knowing if it’s actually true or not. But still, point taken.
Do you need to watch HBONow on an Apple device, or do you just need an Apple account? I have an iPhone (through work) but I’d rather watch on my TV (which has Roku), or even my PC screen, instead of my little phone.
I thought I heard something on the radio about downloading an app from the Apple store that will let you watch HBO on your computer – but now I’m guessing they may have meant Apple computers.
From what I’ve read, you’ll need an Apple device (either AppleTV or computer or tablet) to set up the HBONow account, but once you have the account you can use it on any interweb machine.
I am just feeling stabby about this after my recent experience trying to watch the Oscars. For those of you that don’t know, it was impossible to stream the Oscars unless you had a cable or dish contract and then only in certain markets. Of course, if you have a cable contract, why would you want to stream it? It was stupid decision by ABC and their parent company Disney and has left a bad taste in my mouth about these exclusive media channels. I would have paid $50 to watch the oscars as it keeps Mrs. Fun Ball (Yes, that is her name) Happy - but this was not an option…
I just want to pay someone money and watch the Oscars or GoT without having to get an Apple TV (I give enough of my personal information to Google, thank you very much), or get a Comcast subscription (they bent me over for years and I am tired of it). YMMV.
The Oscars were on ABC. Free over broadcast. Why couldn’t you just turn on your TV?