Cable and satellite TV stalwart HBO is finally spreading its wings.
Yesterday the network company responsible for countless award-winning shows, from “The Sopranos” to “Game of Thrones” and “True Blood,” announced that it will launch an Internet streaming subscription next year, for which the only requirement will be a suitably quick connection.
If the last year or two has set the stage for Internet streaming companies to prove their worth, 2015 is all set to raise the curtain for the main performance. Netflix has paved the way for exclusive original content via a simple streaming service with “House of Cards” and “Orange is the New Black,” with competitors following suit.
From Amazon’s Prime Instant Video product to Hulu Plus comedy originals and ad-supported entertainment offerings from Yahoo!, AOL, any many more, the industry is awash with on-demand Internet streaming options. Even so, the exclusivity of these options and the fact that many are new, unproven shows makes for a fragmented market place.
Aside from Netflix, which saw a consistent bump in subscriptions following its investment in the Kevin Spacey-led “House of Cards,” no clear leader has emerged to dominate the U.S. market as, say, Spotify has in the streaming music space. And even Netflix hasn’t had the smoothest ride, with its stock price volatile whenever the slightest crack shows in an otherwise polished veneer.
HBO has both the quality and brand recognition to flip online entertainment on its head.
For years consumers and industry analysts have heralded the cord-cutting trend without actually seeing major movement from a significant base of consumers. Although Millennials are seen to be taking a pass on cable subscriptions and instead opting for a mix-and-match set of online subscriptions, the meat and potatoes of the industry has been Boomer households, for which a cable or satellite subscription bundle is not just the norm, but the foundation of the family household’s entertainment. Often this bundle includes Internet and phone services.
With so many services tied into one provider – and often with very few options to change providers for all three – the status quo has been maintained a lot longer than most pundits predicted. Now that major networks are moving out on their own, combined with the fact that mobile technology has made land lines less attractive and created a second screen for viewers, the main players clearly see a need to take control of their future.
When we looked at Entertainment 3.0 earlier this year, this is exactly what we had in mind. As arguably the biggest possible name to emerge from behind the barrier of expensive cable/satellite subscriptions, HBO’s announcement will see 2015 as the year “unbundling” finally becomes a realistic option for the average North American household.
All of this is positive news for the creators whose work fills the pipeline for entertainment providers. Instant, affordable access to the best shows brings more viewers to the table and ready to pay for what they watch, squeezing out inferior pirate site offerings for the quality and convenience of solutions tailor-made for the digital world.
