HBO has given people who listen forlornly to their friends talking about new episodes of Girls or Boardwalk Empire the barest of hopeful tidbits to snack on: HBO Go “maybe,” “could” be bundled as a service from broadband providers, in place of or addition to cable provider partnerships. Reuters reports that HBO has yet to work out the numbers, but to us the company sounds about 40 percent sure that it’s certain that this could, indeed, happen. HBO shows are highly inaccessible given the digital age we live in. Game of Thrones in particular suffers from a high rate of piracy, which some indignant viewers and lookers-on attribute to the lack of availability of HBO’s programs. HBO does not participate in services like iTunes Season Pass or Hulu, and unless one subscribes to a full cable service package and pays an extra fee for HBO’s channels, the only other legitimate avenue to an HBO show is waiting for it to be released on DVD.
About Shelly Palmer
Shelly Palmer is the Professor of Advanced Media in Residence at Syracuse University’s S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications and CEO of The Palmer Group, a consulting practice that helps Fortune 500 companies with AI strategy, implementation and governance, as well as technology, media and marketing. Named one of LinkedIn’s Top Voices in Technology, he is a bestselling author, covers tech and business for Fox 5’s Good Day New York, is a regular commentator on CNN, and writes the popular daily business blog Think About This. Follow @shellypalmer or visit shellypalmer.com.