businessweek.com — Thanks to the popularity of YouTube, all kinds of shows are popping up on the Web. Conspicuously absent from that list: Home Box Office, who has been less-than-amicable to downloaders. But, that won't be true for long. HBO is planning significant online and mobile offerings, and executives are currently in the process of hashing out the details.
Nov 2, 2006 View in Crawl 4
cstuNov 3, 2006
This could be good if the quality is HD, but otherwise people will still continue downloading the torrents for free.
swicklundNov 3, 2006
AWESOME. I recently canceled my cable. I live with only broadband now. The ONLY channel I miss is HBO. I would love to subscribe and not have to pay $50/month for 100 channels of crap just for the privilege to pay another $10 to get HBO.
pugsbyNov 3, 2006
All these new-fangled video sites... I hope this doesn't clog the tubes of the internets so much that I can't use The Google.
oxyrubberNov 4, 2006
They couldn't pay me to put anything on my phone. My phone is for calls, contacts, and note-taking. I refuse to waste money on music or movie/show downloads just for a phone that I could lose/break/replace in a few months.On the other hand, if HBO bypassed the DVD release and gave me a download-and-burn DVD (not some crap with restrictions like Amazon's Unbox), I would pay money to get a DVD-burnable copy (with nearly the same quality-- audio AND video) as soon as the new episode aired.I have a TV and a DVR and HBO already, so the only thing HBO could sell me is a long-term copy of the same thing I pay subscriptions for.On the other hand, if this move is purely to expand into the online video market, they could make a reasonable increase in viewership if HBO sold "subscriptions" on a show-by-show basis (for less than HBO costs on TV) or an internet-alternative to their entire lineup on TV.
lightsout06Nov 4, 2006
this is awesome. i would definently pay 4-5 bucks an episode to watch a live stream of The Wire without even being able to save it to me HD. Smart move by HBO.
greenspadeNov 4, 2006
that is a great list!
Closed AccountNov 7, 2006
Will this download service be available for linux users or will they complain about such people using illegal software after they have decided to not make the service available to them?
anastasFeb 2, 2007
YEAH! LETS GET RID OF THE CABLE MIDDLE MAN! I am sooo for this. Too many people are forced to subscribe to these ridiculous channel packages and pay a ton of money only because they want one or two channels. People have become fooled into paying so much money every month for something that used to be free. Nobody seemed to complain when Time Warner moved the TV antenna towers from midtown NYC to downtown where nobody could get reception, forcing everyone to have to get cable, when it was already working fine for many people!!!I think the cable companies are not going to let this one go easily by fighting the networks and other lobbying tactics. I think we can be paying much less than we are but they don't want us to know.