HBO Announces New Online-Only Service HBO NOW
Today, HBO finally confirmed several of the reports surrounding its new over-the-top (OTT) service:
- It’s called HBO NOW.
- It’ll cost $14.99 a month.
- It’ll launch in April (in time for the Season 5 premiere of Game of Thrones on April 12).
- You’ll only be able to get it through Apple, at least for the first three months of its existence.
HBO dropped the official announcement at Apple “Spring Forward” event in San Francisco this morning, since the two are partnering exclusively for HBO NOW’s launch.
The good news is that, unlike HBO’s deal with Amazon Prime, there are no content wrinkles with HBO NOW. Not all HBO series (or certain seasons of HBO series) are on Prime, and members have to wait for new episodes of current series (plus, no access to the HBO movie library). NOW will offer a much more complete collection: All episodes of HBO’s current and past series, including new episodes as they air, and all the movies that are also available on HBO Go, the online component of a regular HBO subscription. To sweeten the deal, HBO will give anyone who signs up through Apple a 30-day free trial of NOW, and Apple TV has lowered its price to $69, $30 cheaper than it was yesterday.
The bad news is that if you’re looking to get the service on your Android tablet, you’re out of luck, at least for now—HBO NOW will only be available on PCs and devices that run iOS. To cheer you up, here’s a brand-new Game of Thrones trailer that’s also Apple-exclusive.
