What’s the worst possible time for HBO’s streaming services to go down? That would have to be during the first airing of a new episode of the premium channel’s Game of Thrones, and is precisely what happened last night. Fans, perhaps having subscribed to the service because HBO is now getting serious about stopping piracy, couldn’t access the streaming service which is designed to stop them from pirating HBO shows. [More]
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Time Warner CEO Isn’t Worried About Cable TV’s Fate: “Netflix Is Good, But Not That Good”
By 8.28.15
While cable companies’ investors might be shaking in their boots whenever the word “Netflix” pops up, the streaming video service isn’t the giant slayer it’s been made out to be — at least according to Time Warner Inc. Jeff Bewkes, who says his HBO is better than Netflix. [More]
HBO Will Get 9-Month Exclusive Window On New Sesame Street Episodes
By 8.13.15
In an attempt to make its cable and streaming services more appealing to families, HBO has struck a five-year deal with the folks at Sesame Workshop that will give the premium cable channel a 9-month exclusive window on new Sesame Street episodes. [More]
HBO Now Adds Chromecast Support
By 8.6.15
Last month, HBO Now crossed the tech dividing line, making its way to Android devices after months of being exclusively available to Apple device users. Today, the standalone streaming service announced it was taking things a bit farther by adding support for Google Chromecast. [More]
Dish CEO: “Netflix Is The Most Powerful Content Aggregator In The World Today”
By 8.5.15
The first half of 2015 brought us the launch of a whole bunch of new over-the-top streaming TV services, including HBO Now and Dish’s Sling. Now, at the midpoint of the year, all of those earnings reports and investor calls are rolling in and we can start to find out just how popular those services are. Or we could… if executives would talk. Instead, they hem and haw and hedge and make only two things clear. One: cord-cutters are real. And two: when it comes to streaming, Netflix is still the biggest elephant in the room. [More]
Cord Cutters: Don’t Hold Your Breath Waiting For A Starz Streaming Service
By 7.30.15
Compared to HBO and Showtime, Starz may not be the biggest brand in premium TV, but the network isn’t without its many fans. And last year, Starz execs seemed destined to jump on the bandwagon of offering a standalone streaming service for people who didn’t also want to pay for cable TV packages. But now the network’s CEO is saying he’s in no rush to offer such a product. [More]
Verizon Makes HBO Now Available To FiOS Customers
By 7.29.15
Since the spring launch of HBO Now, the streaming service that allows you to get HBO content without having to pay for a cable TV package, New York-based Cablevision was the only pay-TV/broadband provider selling subscriptions directly to its customers. Now the folks at Verizon have seen that there’s money to be made from people who want TV but don’t want cable, and is making HBO Now available for its FiOS and other broadband customers. [More]
HBO Now Finally Launching On Android
By 7.16.15
Now that Apple’s exclusivity period has come and gone, users of Android devices will finally be able to access HBO Now, the standalone streaming service that lets users access HBO content online without having to pay for a basic cable package (or borrow a friend’s HBO Go password). [More]
20% Of Young Adults Are Using Someone Else’s Netflix, HBO Go Passwords
By 7.10.15
Are you piggybacking on the Netflix, HBO Go, Amazon Prime, Hulu, etc, account of a friend or family member? A new report claims that you’re part of the 6% of U.S. households that are costing these companies $500 million in revenue this year. [More]
Showtime’s Standalone Streaming Service Is Now Available For Cord-Cutters To Buy
By 7.7.15
After months of waiting, cord-cutters can now get access to Showtime’s streaming service without having to subscribe to basic cable (or use a friend’s login info). [More]
Hulu Will Sell Showtime’s Standalone Streaming Service For $9
By 6.23.15
The folks at CBS have already shown they are willing to try something new with the upcoming launch of the standalone Showtime streaming service, making it available through Sony’s PlayStation Vue live-TV platform in addition to being sold through iTunes and Roku. Today, the company announced another partnership that will sell Showtime through Hulu at a discounted rate. [More]
Cord-Cutters Rejoice: Standalone Showtime To Launch In July For $11/Month
By 6.3.15
CBS is finally making good on its promise to launch a standalone, Internet-only version of Showtime so that fans of shows like Homeland and Penny Dreadful (and people who want to re-experience the hilarious death spiral of Dexter’s final season) won’t need a basic cable subscription. [More]
HBO Now Reportedly Coming To A Google Or Android Device Near You… Soon
By 5.28.15
When HBO (kind of) cut the cord and announced it would finally launch a long-awaited standalone streaming service earlier this year, many Android users were left on the sidelines as it was revealed that HBO Now would start as an Apple exclusive. Now those once disconnected consumers can rejoice (if they so choose) because the service will soon be available on Google devices and Chromecast. [More]
Standalone Showtime Service Confirmed To Launch In Coming Months
By 5.7.15
While CBS Corp. didn’t provide any pricing details today on the long-hinted-at standalone Showtime streaming service (a la HBO Now), the company did confirm that it will indeed be giving consumers this new cable-free option at some point in the coming months. [More]
Cablevision CEO: Pay-TV Is The “Milk & Eggs” Of His Business; Internet Is The “Soda & Chips”
By 5.4.15
As we noted earlier today, Comcast now effectively has exactly the same number of Internet customers as it does cable subscribers, and the Internet users will soon outnumber those who get their TV from Comcast. And while a pay-TV customer brings in significantly more gross revenue for a cable company than someone who is broadband-only, these companies are likely making more profit off their Internet users. [More]
HBO CEO Brushes Off Idea Of Simultaneously Releasing All Episodes Of A Show
By 4.27.15
While Netflix and Amazon may be catering to binge-watchers by releasing all episodes of their original shows online at once — and even though HBO’s online library allows users to plow through entire series of older shows — don’t expect the network to dump an entire new season of Game of Thrones or True Detective onto HBO Go or HBO Now. [More]
Showtime May Soon Announce Standalone Streaming Service
By 4.24.15
Back in Nov. 2014, CBS CEO Les Moonves said that his company’s Showtime network would “fairly definitively” launch some sort of standalone streaming service in 2015. Since then, there hasn’t really been much news about it. But since HBO has launched HBO Now without the world coming to an end, it looks like it might be time for CBS to unveil that service. [More]
