Skip to main content

Advertisement

Advertisement

Apple’s ‘exclusive’ HBO deal becomes even less exclusive

SAN FRANCISCO — Another company is grabbing the first-mover advantage in carrying HBO’s new Internet television service. Yesterday (April 1) Sling TV announced it will be “the first live Internet TV service” to offer HBO content. For US$15 (S$20.45) a month, Sling TV subscribers can add HBO to their Internet television packages. The companies didn’t announce an exact launch date, but they did say it would be available in time for the season premiers of Game of Thrones and Silicon Valley on April 12.

Mr Richard Plepler, chief executive officer of Home Box Office Inc (HBO), speaks during the Apple Inc Spring Forward event in San Francisco, California, US. Photo: Bloomberg

Mr Richard Plepler, chief executive officer of Home Box Office Inc (HBO), speaks during the Apple Inc Spring Forward event in San Francisco, California, US. Photo: Bloomberg

Follow TODAY on WhatsApp

SAN FRANCISCO — Another company is grabbing the first-mover advantage in carrying HBO’s new Internet television service. Yesterday (April 1) Sling TV announced it will be “the first live Internet TV service” to offer HBO content. For US$15 (S$20.45) a month, Sling TV subscribers can add HBO to their Internet television packages. The companies didn’t announce an exact launch date, but they did say it would be available in time for the season premiers of Game of Thrones and Silicon Valley on April 12.

The announcement comes less than a month after Mr Richard Plepler, HBO’s chief executive, took the stage at an Apple event and said that company would be the exclusive carrier of HBO Now. While the companies didn’t announce it from the stage, the exclusivity didn’t extend to pay TV providers, which could still strike deals with HBO. Soon after Apple’s announcement, Cablevision said it would become the first cable company to offer HBO Now to broadband-only subscribers.

Still, the deal seemed to be a coup for Apple, because HBO Now would be available only on Apple devices at launch. But that exclusivity is also being eroded even before Apple’s exclusive window begins. Anyone who subscribes to Sling TV can watch the same content on their Roku or Amazon Fire TV. Yesterday’s announcements didn’t explicitly describe the service as HBO Now, maintaining Apple’s supposed exclusivity. HBO said Sling is owned by a pay TV provider (Dish) and so Apple still has an exclusive for non-pay TV companies. Getting HBO on a non-Apple device also requires subscribing to Sling’s US$20-a-month service, at least for now.

It was always in HBO’s best interests to work with as many partners as possible. It wants its new Internet television service to reach a wide range of consumers, after all. But it has played its hand deftly in the runup to the launch. Everyone wants to be first, and HBO was smart to dole out the deals in such a way that three different companies would trumpet their claim to hold that status. BLOOMBERG

Read more of the latest in

Advertisement

Advertisement

Stay in the know. Anytime. Anywhere.

Subscribe to get daily news updates, insights and must reads delivered straight to your inbox.

By clicking subscribe, I agree for my personal data to be used to send me TODAY newsletters, promotional offers and for research and analysis.