You won’t be able to subscribe to HBO Now directly from HBO

HBO officially announced their standalone streaming service, dubbed HBO Now, a couple of weeks ago. It will run $14.99 per month, but the perception was that you could just sign up directly from HBO and you won’t need a cable subscription. While the latter might be true, the former isn’t.

Apparently you will have to sign up through one of their partners. Now we already know that Apple is a partner as they are supposed to have a 3 month exclusive with Apple TV, but users will sign up for the monthly service through iTunes. Furthermore, Cablevision has just signed up as a partner and will offer HBO Now to their Optimum internet customers. So again, users will need to buy HBO Now through Cablevision, but they don’t need a cable subscription. It’s likely other cable companies will start offering HBO Now to those that subscribe to their internet services as well.

It remains to be seen how HBO Now will get on other set-top boxes once the exclusivity period with Apple ends. So for example, in order to watch it on Android TV, an app would be required. Will HBO still offer an HBO Now app, or will it be up the cable company (or other partner) to offer the app? Would Amazon and/or Google become a partner? There are still many questions, and hopefully HBO Now will be easily accessible when the time comes.

source: TheVerge

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