Our dreams are coming true! After much, MUCH begging, HBO is finally going to offer a stand-alone service to consumers in 2015.
The news was announced on Wednesday by the network and chairman/ CEO Richard Plepler. The decision reportedly came after they discussed the fact that there are about 10 million “broadband only” households in the United States. Plepler said,
“That is a large and growing opportunity that should no longer be left untapped,” Plepler said in a press release. “It is time to remove all barriers to those who want HBO. So, in 2015, we will launch a stand-alone, over-the-top, HBO service in the United States. We will work with our current partners. And, we will explore models with new partners. All in, there are 80 million homes that do not have HBO and we will use all means at our disposal to go after them.”
Many fans of HBO shows like “Game of Thrones” were forced to resort to pirating the series because they either didn’t have cable or couldn’t afford the high price of adding the channel to their service.
There is no word yet on how much the standalone service will cost monthly but hopefully somewhere around the same price that Netflix charges for their instant service.
