HBO Go

HBO Go
Type of site
Video on demand
Available in English, Thai
Predecessor(s) HBO on Broadband
Headquarters New York City, New York, United States
Area served United States, Thailand[1]
Key people Richard Plepler (CEO)
Website play.hbogo.com
Registration Subscription to HBO through participating pay television provider required to access content
Launched February 18, 2010 (2010-02-18)
Current status Active

HBO Go is a TV Everywhere service offered by the American premium cable network HBO. It allows HBO subscribers to stream video on demand selections of HBO content, including current and past series, films, specials, and sporting events, through either the HBO website, or apps on mobile devices, video game consoles, and digital media players. The service first launched on February 18, 2010.

Overview

HBO Go is the successor to HBO on Broadband, which was originally launched in January 2008 to Time Warner Cable customers in Green Bay and Milwaukee, Wisconsin.[2][3] Programming content available on the service consisted of 400 hours of feature and HBO original television films (including 130 movie titles that rotated monthly), specials and original series that could be downloaded to computers, at no extra charge for HBO subscribers; in order to access HBO on Broadband content, users had to be a digital cable customer that had a subscription to HBO, and used their cable company as their internet service provider.

The service launched nationally as HBO Go on February 18, 2010, initially available through Verizon FiOS.[4] Over the following years, the service expanded to other providers including AT&T U-verse, Comcast, Cox Communications, Time Warner Cable,[5] DirecTV,[6] Dish Network,[7] Suddenlink Communications,[8] and Charter Communications in some states,[9][10] as well as through Google TV.[11]

At launch, the service was accessible only on personal computers via the HBO website. Applications for iOS and Android devices were released on April 29, 2011, making the service available on smartphones and tablet computers.[12] The app had over one million downloads in its first week, and was downloaded over three million times by the end of June 2011.[13][14]

In October 2011, Roku streaming players became the first television-connected devices to support the service, and availability was later rolled out to the Apple TV, Chromecast, PlayStation consoles, Samsung Smart TVs, and Xbox consoles. Availability on set-top boxes and gaming consoles is determined by individual cable providers in the United States with some omissions. Currently Charter Communications does not support the Apple TV and Amazon Fire TV, and Comcast does not support the PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Fire TV and did not support Roku players until late 2014.[15][16] Sling TV subscribers who receive HBO through that service are unable to access HBO GO, since HBO's live feed and on-demand content is available through the Sling TV apps.[17] The same also applies to PlayStation Vue subscribers except they also have access to HBO Now.[18]

HBO Now

On October 15, 2014, following a trial of a similar service in Nordic Europe, HBO announced that it planned to launch an over-the-top subscription service in 2015, which would allow "cord cutters", "cord nevers", and subscribers to basic cable packages to subscribe to HBO without requiring either a subscription to a pay television provider or to a premium bundle. The decision marks a significant change to HBO's business model, as the service will be marketed directly to consumers rather than through television providers. The new offering will primarily target "cord cutters" and "cord nevers", who primarily use online video services, such as Netflix or Hulu, to stream video content and television programming rather than subscribing to a cable television or satellite provider.[19][20] The new service, HBO Now, was officially unveiled on March 9, 2015 for a launch in April of that year, with mobile and digital media player support exclusive to Apple devices at launch.[21]

The over-the-top service was launched in Latin America in June 2017, although under the name HBO Go.

Content

HBO Go streams a selection of theatrically released films (via film studios that maintain distribution deals with HBO including 20th Century Fox, Universal Pictures and network sister company Warner Bros. Pictures) with a significant number of titles added and removed from the service every month. HBO original series are available on a permanent basis. New episodes of current series are typically available for streaming beginning at the time of their initial broadcast in the Eastern Time Zone on the linear HBO channel.[22]

However, HBO Go does not carry several past HBO series, such as Tales from the Crypt, Tenacious D, 1st & Ten, Arliss, Da Ali G Show, or The Ricky Gervais Show.[23] Moreover, unlike TV Everywhere services offered by most other broadcast and cable-satellite television networks, HBO Go does not provide access to near-real-time streams of HBO's linear channels. (Max Go, the TV Everywhere service of sister premium service Cinemax, also does not offer streams of any of that network's linear television channels.)

Platforms

References

  1. Usanee Mongkolporn, Asina Pornwasin. "AIS signs deal to exclusively air HBO", The Nation, Bangkok, Retrieved on 7 September 2018.
  2. Gary Levin (January 21, 2008). "It's not TV, it's HBO – on your computer". USA Today. Gannett Company. Retrieved October 5, 2012.
  3. Peter Lauria (January 21, 2008). "HBO on Broadband in Restricted Rollout". New York Post. News Corporation. Retrieved October 5, 2012.
  4. Georg Szalai (February 17, 2010). "HBO GO heads to FiOS". The Hollywood Reporter. Guggenheim Digital Media. Retrieved October 5, 2012.
  5. R. Thomas Umstead (March 2, 2011). "Cox To Offer HBO To Go". Multichannel News. NewBay Media.
  6. "DIRECTV to Launch HBO GO and MAX GO, April 12". DirecTV (Press release). April 11, 2011.
  7. "Dish Network Offers HBO GO and MAX GO, Presenting More Than 1,800 On-Demand Movies and Original Series to Online Customers". Dish Network (Press release). April 21, 2011.
  8. Todd Spangler (April 26, 2011). "Suddenlink Takes HBO And Cinemax To Go". Multichannel News. NewBay Media.
  9. Todd Spangler (July 21, 2011). "Charter Officially Delivers HBO, Cinemax To Go". Multichannel News. NewBay Media.
  10. "HBO GO / MAX GO". Charter Communications. Retrieved March 23, 2015.
  11. Paul Demery (October 5, 2010). "Amazon and Netflix will be on Google TV". Internet Retailer.
  12. 1 2 3 Ryan Lawler (April 29, 2011). "HBO Go Now Available on iPad, iPhone and Android". Gigaom. GigaOmniMedia, Inc.
  13. Todd Spangler (May 10, 2011). "HBOGo Apps Top 1 Million Downloads In First Week". Multichannel News. NewBay Media. Retrieved March 23, 2015.
  14. Kevin Sullivan (June 27, 2011). "HBO GO passes 3 million downloads. Is it worth it?". Entertainment Weekly. Time Inc. Retrieved March 23, 2015.
  15. "HBO Go: Activate". Home Box Office Inc.
  16. Anu Passary (December 18, 2014). "Comcast Allows HBO Go and Showtime Streaming on Roku". Tech Times.
  17. https://help.hbogo.com/hc/en-us/articles/205404147-Can-I-subscribe-to-HBO-GO-by-using-Sling-as-my-TV-provider-
  18. Dwayne Benefield. PS Vue: HBO, Cinemax, New Ultra Plan Arrive Today, playstation.com, September 29, 2016.
  19. David Lieberman (October 15, 2014). "HBO To Launch Stand-Alone Online Service, Without Cable, In 2015: Time Warner Investor Day". Deadline Hollywood. Penske Media Corporation. Retrieved October 16, 2014.
  20. Derek Thompson (October 15, 2014). "HBO Go-It-Alone: There Goes the Cable Bundle?". The Atlantic. Atlantic Media. Retrieved October 16, 2014.
  21. Chris Welch (March 9, 2015). "HBO Now coming in April for $14.99 per month, Apple TV price cut to $69". The Verge. Vox Media.
  22. Jonathan Vankin (April 6, 2014). "'Game Of Thrones' Premiere Live Stream Online, But Will HBO Go Crash Again?". Inquisitr.
  23. Erik Adams, Sam Adams; Phil Dyess-Nugent, Will Harris and Kyle Ryan (May 15, 2013). "It's not TV—and it's not available on HBO Go: 27-plus HBO originals unavailable from the streaming service". The A.V. Club.
  24. Adriana Lee (December 16, 2014). "HBO Go Hits Amazon Fire TV, May Bring Cord-Cutting Service Too". ReadWrite.
  25. "HBO Go gets an Android TV app, but not for Comcast subscribers".
  26. Roberto Baldwin (June 19, 2013). "HBO GO Finally Arrives on Apple TV". Wired. Condé Nast.
  27. Jim O'Neill (November 22, 2013). "HBO Go Launches on Chromecast as Mobile Video Mainstreams". Ooyala.
  28. "HBO Go for PS3 Coming Soon, PS4 to Follow". PlayStation. Sony Computer Entertainment. January 16, 2014.
  29. "HBO Go Available on PS4 Later Today". Playstation. Sony Interactive. March 3, 2015.
  30. "Introducing Roku LT and a Sneak Peek at HBO GO". Roku. October 11, 2011. Retrieved October 5, 2012.
  31. "Roku Channel Store". Roku. Retrieved October 5, 2012.
  32. Andrew Webster (February 17, 2012). "HBO Go now available on select Samsung Smart TVs". The Verge. Vox Media.
  33. http://blog.tivo.com/2016/02/tivo-adds-hbo-go-and-toon-goggles-the-perfect-dvr-for-all-ages/
  34. "XBox Live Adds HBO Go, MLB.tv and Comcast Xfinity Apps". PC World. March 27, 2012.
  35. Eddie Makuch (June 4, 2014). "HBO Go, Twitter, Vine Coming to Xbox One By End of 2014". GameSpot. CBS Interactive.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.