Verizon and HBO have announced that all 100 million Verizon customers will now have the option of purchasing HBO Now, HBO's streaming service.
The news could be huge for HBO Now, depending on how aggressively Verizon tries to sell the streaming service. The agreement could be as big for HBO Now as its three-month exclusive deal with Apple was when the service was launched last spring.
"Our customers want choice in accessing premium content when and where they choose, on a variety of devices," said Ben Grad, Verizon's director of content strategy and acquisition, in a statement. "HBO NOW brings compelling content and choice to Verizon broadband customers today – and exciting possibilities for HBO content within Verizon's pending mobile video service."
Since HBO's three-month exclusive deal with Apple finished, a number of other distributors have begun offering the service to their customers. These include Amazon and Google's Android. Despite this, it hasn't added any service providers, and the likes of Comcast have been quite unenthusiastic about the new service.
Ideally, HBO would like to get companies like Comcast on board with the standalone Now service, but without Comcast, Verizon might be enough to push substantial sales of HBO Now itself.
Verizon customers will be able to start a 30-day trial of HBO Now at any time; with it, they will be able to stream HBO Now shows to Android, iOS, Apple TV, PC, Mac and Amazon TV. After the trial is over customers will have to pay $14.99 per month, which is the same rate as getting HBO Now from any other service.
The service is available to Verizon customers starting today, meaning a huge 100 million people will have access to the service. HBO Now will also be integrated on some level with Verizon's own upcoming streaming service, called Go90. It is also not known when Go90 will launch.
It's important to note that customers of Verizon's FiOS TV will not have the option of subscribing solely to HBO Now, instead they will have to buy the proper HBO TV service, which includes access to HBO Go. This means that customers cannot remove HBO from their cable bill and subscribe to the service standalone.
The new service will be good news for the cord cutters among us, with many people ending their cable subscriptions in favor of Internet-based television providers such as Netflix.
Via: ReCode
