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HBO Offers Standalone Streaming Service

September 4, 2012
By Greg Franzese

Good news: HBO will soon make its content available to non-pay TV subscribers. Bad news: in a few European countries.

Still, the move's a dramatic one, given the outcry from cord cutters who even built a website to appeal to network execs for a standalone HBO GO streaming service. The new HBO Nordic AB will be available in Sweden, Norway, Finland and Denmark. A spokesman added that HBO approaches each market differently, so don't get your hopes up quite yet, Variety reports.
The announcement marks a major shift for HBO's traditional business model, which has always required paying a monthly surcharge for a linear channel on top of a basic subscription to cable, satellite and telco providers. Even in other markets outside the U.S., HBO has either pursued that business model or simply licensed its programming to existing networks. HBO does have a standalone digital product active in Poland, but it is rather small.
Instead, it appears the decision is setting HBO up to battle against Netflix, which also recently announced it would expand to the Nordic region. HBO Nordic AB, which will be available for less than 10 euros (US$12.50) per month (or as an add-on to pay-TV subscriptions), will also stream titles from rival networks Showtime and Starz, both of which lack an international presence.
Posted in Online Video News
Tags online video, online streaming
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