Sick of secretly hackingyour friends HBO Go account in order to satisfy your True Detectivefix? Good news: HBO is offeringits popular streaming platform as a stand-alone service in 2015. Richard Plepler,HBOchairman and CEO, announced the move on Wednesday during a Time Warner investment meeting, emphasizing this as a crucial step toward reaching more of the 80 million homes which havent subscribed to the cable channel. That is a large and growing opportunity that should no longer be left untapped, he said. It is time to remove all barriers to those who want HBO.
Time Warner confirmed the news on Twitter, writing, In 2015 @HBO will launch standalone HBO service in the US, will work with current partners & explore models with new partners.Plepler reportedly called the decision transformative, notingthe possibilityof expanding the companys international revenue opportunities.
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HBO Gos streaming option is currently only available to customers who subscribe to the network. But by breaking down that barrier, the company could bring major competition to other streaming platforms, including Netflix.
The move also makes sense for HBO as an attempt to thwart piracy: As Entertainment Weekly reported (via TorrentFreak) back in June, the networks ownGame of Thronesbecame the most pirated series in TV history, with the Season Four finale episode The Childrenbringing an estimated 1.5 million downloads within its first 12 hours of airing. As Mashable notes, many HBO Go users share their accounts with friends and family, making log-ins highly coveted.
Earlier this year, Plepler sat down with Buzzfeed, revealing that he didnt see the practice of sharing HBO Go accounts as a problem. Its not that were ignoring it, and were looking at different ways to affect password sharing, Plepler said. Im simply telling you: its not a fundamental problem, and the externality of it is that it presents the brand to more and more people, and gives them an opportunity hopefully to become addicted to it. What were in the business of doing isbuilding video addicts.