HBO to offer direct-to-user OTT in 2015

Until now, its HBOGo service was available on different devices but always linked to the user being subscribed to a payment platform.

HBO could change its market strategy in the very short term. The pay television provider would be willing to bypass its partners in content distribution and reach the end consumer directly.

Richard Plepler, CEO of HBO, commented this Thursday that "fundamentally we think all the time about the value we can give to our customers. Are we thinking about new options? Of course. It's about the arithmetic. If the arithmetic changes and the arithmetic makes sense in a different way, we are not going to catch our fingers without the ability to make a turn."

Plepler noted that HBO's current business model and its links with the pay TV market currently generates $4 billion in value from the alliances it maintains, "but none of the partners are doing us a favor, since they are doing their own business. If the model changes, we will have the ability to do what we have to do."

So far its HBOGo service is available on Mac, PC, Xbox 360, iPhones, iPads, Apple TV, Roku, Chromecast, Kindle Fire, Samsung and Android smart TVs, although to date it has always required the user to also be an HBO customer from a pay TV provider.

Pero el cambio de hábitos y deseos de consumo de los consumidores están obligando a los propietarios de contenidos a buscar alternativas o, por lo menos, a considerarlas.

Por otro lado, Plepler también ha anunciado el lanzamiento de la aplicación HBOGo en PlayStation 3 y dijo que pronto estará disponible en PlayStation 4.