Howdy, I'm MG Siegler. I’m a general partner at Google Ventures and a columnist for TechCrunch. This is where I collect things.
Some selected works. Some haikus. Some investments. Ask away.
Showing 39 posts tagged HBO
Andrew Wallenstein for Variety:
Netflix reported 29.17 million domestic subscribers in the first quarter of 2013, surpassing HBO for the first time.
You see that fire? That’s all of our collective money burning holes in our pockets just waiting for HBO to unleash Go without a goddamn cable subscription.
By Dan Abramson. Please HBO, let us buy an online suscription to access your content. We’re begging you!
“I probably shouldn’t be saying this, but it is a compliment of sorts.”
Ryan Lawler for TechCrunch:
What’s clear from the data is that not all the pirated downloads are coming from markets that didn’t have access to the show in the hours immediately after airing, and in fact, there’s a large number of viewers in the U.S. who just aren’t paying to watch the show.
Those behind Game of Thrones have suggested that a lot of the piracy stems from places like Australia, where the show faces a very long window before it’s available. And there is clearly quite the piracy problem there. But it’s not the number one market when it comes to pirating the show. That would be the U.S.
And it will remain the U.S. until we can legally buy the show immediately without a cable subscription.
Alistair Barr and Liana B. Baker of Reuters spoke with HBO CEO Richard Plepler at an event last night (which, incidentally, I attended as well):
Customers could pay $50 a month for their broadband Internet and an extra $10 or $15 for HBO to be packaged in with that service, for a total of $60 or $65 per month, Plepler explained.
“We would have to make the math work,” he added.
That’s one of the first promising things out of the mouth of HBO regarding HBO Go in a while. It’s not perfect, but I’d settle for it (since I obviously have to pay for broadband anyway).
The question in my mind is if the cable companies would go for it. I pay Comcast for my internet but do not have cable. Would they allow me to pay an extra $15 for HBO Go access even though they know I could get cable as well and simply choose not to? You’d hope so, but they must know that’s a very slippery slope.
Either way, they may be fucked. But at least HBO is finally on the right path of thinking.
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Season 3, episode 1: very good. (at Palace of Fine Arts)
HBO's corporate website was pretty shitty, but at least it didn't require me to install Flash like HBO's homepage did.
Asked by rkho
That’s a good point.
digg:
Game Of Thrones, 1995 style (aka perfect)
I want it all.
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They’re everywhere here in Austin. And they’re fantastic. Brilliant marketing.
“There’s a beast in every man. And it stirs when you put a sword in its hand.”
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Game of Thrones Season 3 Trailer & Posters Showing Cast’s Dark Side
4 weeks…
So now that Game of Thrones Season 2 is available to buy, have you bought it. or since you watched it already you don't care?
Asked by Anonymous
I found another way to see it a bit early. Though I would have loved to be able to pay when it was actually on (without paying for bullshit cable, of course).
Ina Fried reporting on HBO’s Eric Kessler talking at AllThingsD’s D: Dive Into Media conference:
As for why the company doesn’t just get directly on Apple TV, Kessler said, “We will get on Apple TV, as we’ve said all along.”
I get why there would be a hold up putting HBO Go on Apple TV — Apple fully controls the apps that appear on that device and negotiating with Apple is never easy. But why did it take HBO this long to enable AirPlay in their app when rivals did it months ago? Leverage against Apple, I have to assume. (And now that it’s already been reported that HBO Go is coming directly to Apple TV, no more leverage required…)
It will be great to be able to watch HBO content on the Apple TV. But don’t forget that you still need that cable television subscription to get access to HBO Go in the first place. Which is fucking lame.
