HBO's stand-alone streaming service for cord cutters, HBO Now, has racked up a disappointing amount of subscribers since its introduction last April. The service has around 800,000 subscribers, significantly less than the amount expected by analysts.
After recent reports had indicated the low number was coming, the news was confirmed by Time Warner CEO Richard Plepler in an analyst conference call. Analysts had expected a tally of between 1 to 2 million subscribers, but so far HBO Now has fallen short of even the low end of estimates.
HBO Now was introduced to capitalize on the growing number of Americans, especially Millennials, who do not subscribe to cable or pay TV. The service, which costs $14.99 per month, allows subscribers to stream much of HBO's content via various viewing platforms. Current HBO subscribers who are affiliated with a cable or pay TV company have their own platform on which they can stream HBO content, entitled HBO Go. It essentially mirrors HBO Now, with the main difference simply being that one is for pay TV subscribers while the other is not.
When HBO Now was first introduced, it was exclusive to Apple TV for the first three months, which may have hurt the subscriber count for last year. Other observers speculate that the slow growth of HBO Now may come down to the lack of enough compelling original content on the channel to entice viewers to pay up.
That's expected to change in the coming months when hits like Lena Dunham's "Girls" and HBO's most popular program, "Game Of Thrones" hit the airwaves. "Girls" new season premieres on Feb. 21 and "Game Of Thrones" returns on April 25, while new high profile series like "Westworld" and Martin Scorsese's "Vinyl" are also debuting this year. HBO also inked an exclusive 4-year deal with Jon Stewart, who is expected to produce short videos that are specifically tailored to the HBO Now platform.
HBO is essentially competing with Netflix via the HBO Now platform, but its rival has a humungous head start via its 75 million strong subscriber base. The original programming on Netflix now appears not only to outshine HBO's in the sheer amount of hours produced, but in another area that HBO once owned – critical acclaim and social media buzz.
