M.G. Siegler, as part of his 500 Words series for Medium:
Assuming Learmonth’s sources are correct, HBO is just tying up loose ends (read: Apple) at this point to launch the new service alongside the premiere of season five of Game of Thrones in April.
Yes, there has to be some concern for HBO launching such a service during what will undoubtedly be peak demand — after all, they shit the bed last year during the exact same time with HBO Go — but with MLB by their side to help them this time, we should be good to go.
Will HBO Now catch on, develop the traction it needs to achieve critical mass, to legitimize the à la carte content model?
Based on how this new service fares for HBO, we should see many others fall in line to do the same thing. And given that I fully suspect this will be a massive success for the company, we could see a domino effect quicker than many imagined was possible.
When ESPN tips and goes straight to their users: watch out.
It’s not so much the cord-cutters that Big Cable has to worry about, it’s the upcoming millions of cord-nevers — kids who head off to college or their first jobs and don’t feel like cable television is worth the cost. I would bet on a huge percentage of those kids signing up for HBO Now to go with their Netflix accounts.
On Apple TV:
The current Apple TV has a nice chunk of content, but Apple needs to make it a no-brainer for consumers to go with their offering. That means getting all (or at least most) of the content currently offered on television. Up until now, that has seemingly meant working with the cable providers. But if the aforementioned domino effect happens, Apple could have a much easier time getting what they want (whether that’s dealing with networks directly or using them as leverage to bend the cable operators to their will — we’ll see).
Couldn’t agree more. This is a shrewd partnership for Apple and could be the discriminator that breathes life into Apple TV sales.
One of the most interesting angles of this – one that has happened under the radar – is that MLB’s media division is now considered the best at digital content distribution. Even outside of sports.
I don’t own a TV and I watch Netflix on an iMac. Not sure how this works with Apple TV… would this stream to all devices, no TV needed?
I wouldn’t have seen that coming, but in retrospect it makes a lot of sense.
As a consumer, this makes me very excited. As someone who works for a large cable company,this makes me scared shitless.
Oh, the dichotomy!
I have to wonder whether Nielsen will try to keep cable as much in the dark as it has traditional tv networks.
I don’t think MLB saw it coming either!
Actually, it’s Nielsen who’s even more screwed than cable providers. Their business is basically dead-ended right now. All that digital streaming, regardless of whether it’s from a website, an app, or a cable co’s VOD is instant feedback for the host for every viewer, not just the “Nielsen” families.
Right. Their central service is no longer unique, or even pertinent.
An easily overlooked, but incredibly important part of Netflix’s success has been the huge amount of data they get about their subscriber’s viewing habits. Not just what they watch (and what they don’t), but how long they watch, how often, and more importantly how quickly they hit that “Back to Browse” button. All those metrics have got to be valuable for everything from network planning to support scheduling to content licensing negotiations.
The most interesting part of this announcement was the “this is just the beginning” line from Cook.
Interesting and all, but I still don’t quite get the excitement. Now I can stop paying for HBO delivered much more reliably via my TV/TiVo, and instead pay just as much (if not more) for HBO delivered OTT… by the same cable provider, only using up my data. Win?
If only we hadn’t elected people who allowed all those companies to merge while they preached “smaller government.”
If you still have a cable subscription, this may not make much sense to you (though it depends on how reliable your cable provider’s on-demand access of HBO content is). However, if you only pay for data, like me, then this is the best (and only legal) way to get current HBO content on-demand.