HBO On Demand for Free

January 22nd, 2008

Like many headlines that you read on the Internet these days, this one, too, is misleading. I couldn’t help but pass on the initial dismay I had when clicking through to the Business Week article. So what is actually free? Well, not much actually. HBO will begin to offer, in two locations only (Green Bay, Wis., and Milwaukee) - starting January 21st (yesterday) - all HBO movies and shows on demand via HBO Broadband (not sure on the actual website but assuming via Time Warner). You’ll have to subscribe to Time Warner’s Broadband service and the HBO subscription. In the end of it all you’ll drop over $50/month, but if you’re already paying for it then it’s purely a ‘value add’. Netflix, if you recall, began to offer 6000 movies streaming if you already subscribed to their service (not applicable to all plans, though). A much more attractive proposition if you ask me considering you’re not limited to what HBO has licensed. Time Warner is the only cable operator signed on currently, but HBO says they have plans to roll it out to Comcast and Verizon in the near future. What seems to be missing from the service is the ability to access this “HBO Demand” via your set top box. Good news is that you can access it from multiple locations, but don’t think you can give out the password to all your friend and fam. They’ll allow you to ‘register’ 5 devices (like Napster) - I can only hope that is changeable per month.

Entry Filed under: Movies, Websites