HBO is looking to expand in order to take on the growing threat of Netflix, and has announced that it will launch its standalone Web streaming service in Spain.
According to HBO, residents in Spain will have access to the service by the end of the year.
The move is a big one for the company, especially considering the high rates of broadband-only homes in Spain, as well as the high rates of online piracy. As part of the move, HBO will keep exclusive rights of its content, and won't license them to other pay-TV services in the country. What that means is that once current licensing deals expire, fans of HBO content in Spain will have to access it through the HBO service.
HBO has been expanding a lot in the past few years, appealing to countries where cord-cutting, or getting rid of cable subscriptions, is becoming more popular. In the past four years it has expanded into Sweden, Norway, Finland and Denmark, with this service being called HBO Nordic. It also plans on expanding its current U.S. and Canada-only HBO Go service in Latin America.
Despite its growth, reports indicate that Time Warner, HBO's parent, is being pressured into selling off or spinning off HBO, even though it generates around 20 percent of Time Warner's revenue.
Until lately, HBO has really only made money outside of the U.S. by selling DVDs, digital downloads, and content from iTunes. Now, however, according to a report from Bloomberg, HBO is growing faster outside of the U.S. Internationally, its sister channel, Cinemax rose to 92 million at the end of 2014 from 73 million at the end of 2012. Inside the U.S., subscribers rose from 5 to 46 million during the same time.
It's not yet known exactly what the HBO service in Spain will look like or how much it will cost; however, we should know by the time it launches.
Via: Bloomberg
Photo: Jason Paris | Flickr
