Low Roller
[H]ard|Gawd
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Netflix $8 + HBO Now $15 + SlingTV $20 = $33/mo
Meh. Not bad.
Meh. Not bad.
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HBO Now Coming This Spring For $15 Per Month
- Thread starter HardOCP News
- Start date
dgingeri
2[H]4U
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Sorry, that $43/month, plus you forgot the Hulu Plus for $6/month and Amazon Prime for $99/year (8.33/month). With those, we're at $57.33/month, which is still a steal compared to cable TV.
I agree, for the old cable package I had it was 80 a month for just the TV portion.
Assuming that's the time frame for GoT Season 5 (April 12 - June 21), you could perhaps start your sub maybe ~10 days after Ep 1 launches (April 22) to have to only pay for two months (to get your second month's ~30 day sub to last you till Ep10's premiere on June 21).
Low Roller
[H]ard|Gawd
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Whoops. Bad math day
5
5icko
Guest
Netflix doesn't have GoT.
5
5icko
Guest
If it were eight bucks, I'd still have to think about it.
This, Netflix is making its own great content now and its still 8 USD.
And lol at the "shit content" comments.
I agree, I have been saying before I want to be able to subscribe to a channel and have streaming access to all their original content, past and present, and that I would be willing to pay $10 to $15 a month for that. I want to be able to add and remove channels along the way, say one add and one remove each month no charge, a small charge if I do more then that, maybe $3 or so. Now this is only for original content, so just because I sign up for SciFi Channel all I am going to get are programs/movies made by SciFi and TV Series content that was hosted on SciFi, but I won't get Termininator2 even if they ran it a hundred times cause it's not SciFi orginal content. A Series that originally was hosted on SciFi should be available, at least for all the seasons they ran it. If it moved then I can chase it down on another channel later. When I have watched all I want of SciFi, don't care that much for their current line up, then I can swap them out for F/X and catch up on that one.
I am not sure how much HBO content is available for $15 a month but if I get access to all of their older content as well then it's not a bad deal for awhile. The Sopranos, Rome, Deadwood, a good list here;
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_programs_broadcast_by_HBO
I'd say it's worth 15$ a month if you have the time to sit in front of the tube to get your monies worth.
Viper87227
Fully [H]
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- Jun 2, 2004
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HBO has to know that most people only want it for Game of Thrones. $15/mo to watch Game of Thrones is a bit much.
That said, I bet there will be an overwhelming amount of people who subscribe in April, cancel in June.
That said, I bet there will be an overwhelming amount of people who subscribe in April, cancel in June.
kbrickley
Supreme [H]ardness
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And it is in line with what sensible people thought ala carte channels would run. Anybody who thought ala carte for cable cutters was going to be cheaper was only interested in 1-2 channels. HBO and ESPN are two of the most valuable cable properties so they can charge the largest ala carte rate. The $15 rate is very competitive for HBO, given their content. It is the niche channels like History, Lifetime, Military, etc that will be in the $5-10 range. Premier channels will always be able to charge a premium rate
You still have to pay someone for your internet service.
I would imagine that would be at least 30-50 dollars a month.
Also, if you are a sports fan, how are you going to watch college sports and the NFL/NHL/NBA?
Most of the games are on broadcast TV and live on ESPN......although I think ESPN is coming to Sling?
I'm thinking that HBO probably wanted it to be lower, to compete with netflix and other companies but they most likely had contracts with all the cable companies so HBO couldn't "undercut" them by offering hbo cheaper then what cable companies do.
I was excited about this and would have definitely bit for around 8 bucks a month, but 15 is just oto much.
Especially when you compare it to netflix/amazon which offer FAR FAR more "content" then HBO go.
They really just shot themsleves in the foot with this.
I can see people who would have kept it going monthly for Game of Thrones, watching it each week and going a few months for it instead now waiting until the season is over and then just paying for one month and binge watching it instead.
I was excited about this and would have definitely bit for around 8 bucks a month, but 15 is just oto much.
Especially when you compare it to netflix/amazon which offer FAR FAR more "content" then HBO go.
They really just shot themsleves in the foot with this.
I can see people who would have kept it going monthly for Game of Thrones, watching it each week and going a few months for it instead now waiting until the season is over and then just paying for one month and binge watching it instead.
BladeVenom
Supreme [H]ardness
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Agreed. This beats getting HBO with a cable package by a huge margin.
Even if I paid for Netflix, Hulu Plus, Amazon Prime, Crunchyroll and this new HBO service, plus the internet access I need to use them, I'd still come out far and away cheaper than paying for a cable package that provided all that content in a less convenient format.
Yeah I actually expected 15-20 honestly. I currently have DirecTV and pay $18 per month now for HBO and never really watch it because no shows I like are currently airing and the movie selection is a joke. I am going to be canceling my DirecTV service early and just pay the fee as in the long run I will save money and just use Hulu and Netflix and when my shows are airing fire up an HBO sub. I just hope that day 1 there is an app for Roku and the Xbox One as those are the devices I have invested in for my cord cutting.
HBO is seriously movie-quality programming...it's not just Game of Thrones...True Detective is amazing, the upcoming Westworld drama starring Anthony Hopkins and Ed Harris looks stunning, older classics like Deadwood and The Sopranos etc etc...HBO is the 1 television channel that is worth the cost
HBO has always been a premium channel and always been more expensive. And converting a cable HBO subscriber to a streaming one really doesn't help HBO.
But it doesn't have the first-run and recent HBO original and licensed content, which is what makes HBO valuable.
If anyone thought this would be significantly cheaper then what is offered via cable/sat, they really aren't thinking right imo.
Looks like in most cases it is more expensive, which is to be expected.
$1 per episode? Probably not going to happen anytime soon. Look at the streaming prices of Amazon...
These companies aren't out to give customers deals, they are out to make money. Any perceived deal is pressure from the market.
They will try to price it more then cable/sat to not only keep them happy but also test the waters...
Thankfully cord cutters are causing enough market pressure to get HBO to even OFFER streaming only. It wasn't too long ago they said it would cost Netflix $30 per person for them to get HBO content...
Looks like in most cases it is more expensive, which is to be expected.
$1 per episode? Probably not going to happen anytime soon. Look at the streaming prices of Amazon...
These companies aren't out to give customers deals, they are out to make money. Any perceived deal is pressure from the market.
They will try to price it more then cable/sat to not only keep them happy but also test the waters...
Thankfully cord cutters are causing enough market pressure to get HBO to even OFFER streaming only. It wasn't too long ago they said it would cost Netflix $30 per person for them to get HBO content...
Ur_Mom
Fully [H]
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They used to have comedy specials, boxing, tons of movies, original content. I can see it's value at $15 a month. But, I'd go for a month here and there depending on what was one. More of a PPV for a month than a steady subscription.
I don't watch HBO (or any of the other channels that come with it) for the movie reruns, and I don't remember the last time I watched a series on any of those stations either. I barely have enough time to keep up with the excellent series on Netflix. Netflix has some really awesome programming. I'll need to see their catalog before I form any sort of opinion, but it had better be awesome for $15/mo.
Verizon charges $20/month for HBO. Sometimes you can get it cheaper on promo, but not consistently. I think you can get HBO+Cinemax for $30, so yeah that breaks down to $15 I guess.
Honestly except for Game of Thrones, I could give a rats ass about HBO since the Sopranos ended. All their other shows can totally wait to trickle down to Netflix.
They would make a killing at $60 a year, but then lots of people would cancel their cable, which would surely not please the Cable Gods.
Honestly except for Game of Thrones, I could give a rats ass about HBO since the Sopranos ended. All their other shows can totally wait to trickle down to Netflix.
They would make a killing at $60 a year, but then lots of people would cancel their cable, which would surely not please the Cable Gods.
DarkStar_WNY
2[H]4U
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Exactly, everytime I saw people post rants demanding ala carte I would ask them "why do you think the bill would be considerably cheaper?" I've always felt that the reality would be that instead of paying $100 for 200 channels (190 of which you never watch) we would end up having to pay $100 but for only 10 channels.
ESPN is already on Sling TV along with a bunch of other channels for $20/mo.
ESPN, ESPN2, TNT, TBS, Food Network, HGTV, Travel Channel, Cartoon Network/Adult Swim, Disney Channel, ABC Family, CNN, El Rey Network, Maker, Galavision, AMC
ESPN U can be added in the Sports $5 addon. All major sports can be streamed easily and legally. Any more questions, start Googling.
Also I am tired of the "you have to pay for Internet" argument. I would still pay for Internet if TV never existed. It's a sunk cost. This point will only be relevant if the cost for Internet rises to the point where it matches what TV+Internet costs now. Unlikely.
I am a little disappointed in the price for HBO Now but I'm glad to see it's an option. Kind of a hard sell for us since we get a lot of their back catalog already on Prime. Will wait to see if the quality is any good. The posts here regarding HBO Go's quality are concerning.
lilbabycat
2[H]4U
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I expected this much, and its too much. $10 is my max. They simply don't have enough content to match netflix in price.
andrewaggb
Limp Gawd
- Joined
- Oct 6, 2004
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- 438
I'm looking on itunes and it's $4.50 CAD/episode for game of thrones and 3.50 CAD/episode for arrow. Google play is listing them at $3.50 and $2.50. Microsofts video store doesn't seem to have either show, but big bang theory is $3.50/episode
I've never seen tv shows on any service for $1/episode. That would be fantastic, I think the going rate is $2.50-4.50/episode.
And HBO will continue to ignore you since you're simply not worth their effort to convert to a paying customer.
How does that help anybody but Netlix? Why would HBO cannibalize its own highly successful business just so they can try to get cheap-skates who probably will still pirate their content regardless of how low they go.
This is why I don't know a single person who has ever watched a show on any of these services. Executives must think we are all rolling in cash.
Which is pretty ridiculous when you look at how extremely healthy the profit margins are even at $1.
It seems they would rather have a very small userbase pay a large amount, than a very large userbase pay a small amount. Technically the former may be easier to manage, but the latter is better at resolving piracy issues and society in general. And when you're talking about something infinitely reproducible that's digital, why the hell not?
Its not like it would be outside of there current practices. As it is HBO doesn't offer to run a cable into my house, they sell there services to my cable company who sells it to me. Or tries to anyway.
Its not about being a cheep skate if you think there content is worth $15 a month then by all means pay... there service won't last more then a year if there honest with themselves, 2 if there not.
They would be wise to realize other players have already done a good job of taking care of the delivery of content online. Netflix and Amazon and the like of the world have a pretty good lead on them...
There are massive costs involved with trying to do this the way they are planning, seems short sighted.
They would simply make more PROFIT selling this to netflix to handle. Instead they are going to try and overcharge, end up with 10% of the subs, make a 50% profit margin after they deal with billing admin and bandwidth costs. Instead they could sell this to netflix likely taking a 60-75% cut of the money netflix would charge end users, and not have to deal with ANY of the costs associated with dealing with end users.
The entire time they waste time trying to do it this way... is time where the become less and less relevant. The quality of programming outside of HBO has been catching up for some time.
How do you figure? The first season of Game of Thrones cost 60 million to produce. The second season was nearly 70 million. 50 cents an episode? Get real. If you want to watch ala carte, here you go:
http://www.amazon.com/Game-of-Thrones-Season-3/dp/B00HV2BQCQ/
A bunch of cheapskates in here. HBO has a lot of other quality content, and if it's the same offerings as HBO Go then it includes the back catalog of all of it's shows and rotation of movies.
I've seen some complaints about the stream quality, but streaming through chromecast I've found the quality to be really good. I've heard the HBO Go website is hard to navigate and maybe the web browser streaming is not as good, but I'm very happy with the chromecast set up. All that is moot since this is a new platform anyway.
You can sign me up.
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I posted my math. Set aside the fact they can still sell BluRay 1080p and then later BluRay 4K and eventually TV rights for extra income, but with a very conservative 50 million viewers worldwide over the lifetime of the product (remember, there are 7 billion on the planet) at $1 a pop, we're talking about $50 million dollars per episode.
Ten episodes x $50,000,000 is $500,000,000 income on a cost of $60 million to produce. That gives you a profit margin of, hmm, carry the one, add four, divide by sevenish aaaaaand yeah roughly a kajillion percent.
Yes and you will see plenty of complaints about quality. Cause there not a streaming company.
All the power to them if they can make it work... but this is really really after the fact.
Had they tried to do this a few years ago, before companies like Netflix became a 60 million subscriber stong company. They would have had a shot.
As it is they are late to the party... obviously where not willing to annoy there cable company customers previously. Now they likely don't care cause they can see the writing on the wall for there old model.
In Canada where I live its funny watching all the cable companies scrambling to launch there own steaming services... and launching lawsuits over Canadian content %s ect... doing everything they can save there customer numbers.
I love HBO... and I have supported them buy buying DvDs and Blurays... however I won't support them by subscribing to a weak slow online service. Perhaps if they delivered content like Netflix does with there shows where they would just post an entire season when its done, it may be worth the 15 bucks. Then you could sub for a month catch what you like and unsub... instead of being dragged along for 6 months to catch 10 hours of content you care about. Pass
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