Sunday, May 01, 2011
HBO Comes to the iPad
by Peter Kafka
HBO Go, the pay cable channel's Web service, doesn't formally launch
on the iPad until Monday. But no need to wait: You can download it now
at iTunes.
As advertised, the free app is a mirror of HBO's existing broadband
service: It lets the channel's subscribers stream a very deep catalog
of HBO's shows and movies, on demand, via both Wi-Fi and wireless
networks.
It will also work on Apple's iPhone and iPod Touch, as well as 20
phones running Google's Android; it won't work on tablets running
Google's newest Honeycomb OS, though. (Demo video from BTIG's Rich
Greenfield at the bottom of this post)
The two catches:
The service is available to most cable customers, with the exception
of Time Warner Cable and Cablevision subscribers. Time Warner Cable
says it's working on a deal; Cablevision won't comment.
It's a very deep catalog–1,400 titles, including the complete run of
great series like "The Sopranos" and "The Wire"–but it will still have
gaps that could frustrate HBO's most avid users. I'd like to try David
Simon's "Treme" again, for instance, but I can't get last season's
episodes; just the new ones that started airing last week.
Some of you will bemoan the fact that you have to be a cable
subscriber to get this–there's no broadband-only option, a la Netflix
and Hulu Plus. But that's the point: Parent company Time Warner is
completely wedded to the cable industry and wants to build as many
incentives as it can to keep you there, too.
Still, this stuff is lightyears ahead of where the cable business was
just a couple years ago, where paying subscribers had no way to get
these shows except on their TVs, or by buying it again on DVD or
iTunes.
And if you really are a dedicated cord-cutter, and a patient one, you
may eventually get your way: I can imagine a scenario where HBO does
offer this stuff directly to consumers, and if it happens within a few
years, I won't be completely shocked.
