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When HBO announced its online streaming service that doesn’t require a cable subscription — dubbed HBO Now — it was exclusive to iOS, but we quickly learned that wouldn’t be the case for very long. Thankfully that was accurate: Google has announced that HBO Now will soon be headed to Google Play.
The app should be nearly identical to HBO Go, giving you on-demand access to all of HBO’s shows and currently showing movies (and you’ll pay $14.99 per month for the privilege of doing so). One other thing that the Android version will get is Chromecast support, so you can beam the content to your TV with ease.
Unfortunately Google didn’t have any specifics to dish out for availability aside from the usual “later this summer,” spiel, so we’ll have to wait for further word before we know all the details. Be sure to stick with Phandroid and you’ll know the moment we do!
I’m only watching live blogs of the I/O keynote, but I didn’t see mention that there was actually Chromecast support. Did they say that, or is it still an assumption (with the guarantee that screencasting would still work regardless)?
What kind of deal did Apple pay HBO for their exclusive offering for such a long time? Were there credible technical obstacles in providing a Play Store option that helped HBO decide to go along with an exclusive deal or did Apple just pay them enough money to make it all worth it for this amount of time?
Somewhere I read it that it was a absurd and ridiculous amount of money that Apple had paid to HBO and a few others for exclusivity. I want to say that they also kicked money to some regional cable companies to placate the potential loss of subscribers. I’m stuck in traffic on the way home, if I remember I’ll try to find it online later. WSJ I believe when Apple did their financial reporting.
You are late.