From DailyTech: Time Warner Inc.'s (TWX) HBO (Home Box Office) channel has for months now teased at a stand-alone streaming service offering. HBO is cable television's oldest paid network channel, acitve since 1972. Today it's home to such popular series as Sex and the City, The Sopranos, The Wire, Entourage, Six Feet Under, Boardwalk Empire, Game of Thrones, and True Blood. It also owns the rights to extremely popular miniseries, such as the Spielberg-produced war drama Band of Brothers. Upcoming offerings such as True Detective and Westworld are generating substantial buzz, as well.
At its smart watch + MacBook unveil event today Apple, Inc. (AAPL) delivered a bit of a surprise, announcing that the new HBO streaming service would be Apple exclusive.
The new service is named "HBO Now." For those confused about how this fits in with the pre-existing "HBO Go" streaming service, recall that "HBO Go" is free, but requires a cable subscription. By contrast HBO Now requires no preexisting subscription, making it a so-called "over the top" service.
The service will be available for those with an iPhone, iPad, or Apple TV. The clients are not quite ready, but will be available by April, according to HBO. The good news is that it does appear that the service may be available for both Mac OS X users, and for users of Microsoft Corp.'s (MSFT) Windows PC OS. Time Warner writes in its press release:
Alongside the unveil of HBO Now, Tim Cook announced a price cut on the Apple TV from $99.99 USD to $69 USD. He also revealed that Apple TV has sold a modest 25 million units to date, making it a "category leader" in his words. That number indicates a nice pickup in sales over the 2014 season.
View: Article @ Source Site
