The OFFICIAL DISH / HBO Thread

As a Dish Welcome Package sub, the thing I miss most about the lack of HBO on Dish is the Free Preview weekends. In the past we would download “On Demand” the handful of HBO’s programs we wanted to watch over the next month.

Now that we stream almost all of or our viewing via PBS & Amazon Prime w/ an Acorn TV add on — the HBO/Showtime/Cinemax style “premium movie channel” $15/mo business model, with lots of old movies and a few current original series, seems less and less relevant. I have to wonder if AT&T didn’t buy HBO just before the crash in pricey premium movie channels. Keeping streaming subscribers paying $15/mo is going to require significant fresh content every month. There are just too many alternative streaming services.

FWIW we signed up for HBO via Amazon Prime for the final GoT season. When that is done, we’ll cancel. Over the next 6-8 weeks we’ll watch a few of the newer movies on HBO. But frankly with only two adults, after GoT there just isn’t that much in HBO’s portfolio that we want to watch.
 
As a Dish Welcome Package sub, the thing I miss most about the lack of HBO on Dish is the Free Preview weekends. In the past we would download “On Demand” the handful of HBO’s programs we wanted to watch over the next month.

Now that we stream almost all of or our viewing via PBS & Amazon Prime w/ an Acorn TV add on — the HBO/Showtime/Cinemax style “premium movie channel” $15/mo business model, with lots of old movies and a few current original series, seems less and less relevant. I have to wonder if AT&T didn’t buy HBO just before the crash in pricey premium movie channels. Keeping streaming subscribers paying $15/mo is going to require significant fresh content every month. There are just too many alternative streaming services.

FWIW we signed up for HBO via Amazon Prime for the final GoT season. When that is done, we’ll cancel. Over the next 6-8 weeks we’ll watch a few of the newer movies on HBO. But frankly with only two adults, after GoT there just isn’t that much in HBO’s portfolio that we want to watch.

AT&T seems to have bought DirecTV right after the peak in its value, and followed it up with doing the same thing with HBO/TimeWarner. TimeWarner can be a valuable asset, but only if they invest in new content to compete with the upstart Netflix/Hulu/Apple/YouTube/Amazon/etc. "studios."
 
https://www.multichannel.com/news/dish-hbo-impasse-continues

It appears that HBO and Dish met earlier in the week to discuss a deal, and Dish said that the new deal AT&T proposed to them had the same flaws as the previous deal - the fact that everyone needs to pay for it whether they want HBO or not to subsidize the cost so AT&T can give it to their customers for free. AT&T had the same response as before where they say Dish doesn't want to carry HBO even though they gave a reasonable offer.
 
https://www.multichannel.com/news/dish-hbo-impasse-continues

It appears that HBO and Dish met earlier in the week to discuss a deal, and Dish said that the new deal AT&T proposed to them had the same flaws as the previous deal - the fact that everyone needs to pay for it whether they want HBO or not to subsidize the cost so AT&T can give it to their customers for free. AT&T had the same response as before where they say Dish doesn't want to carry HBO even though they gave a reasonable offer.
Well, I did say that this would be the week for that. I never guaranteed that it would actually result in a deal, though. ;)
 
Just read Millions and Millions of people got Game of Thrones through the internet for free.
Wonder what that is doing to Att's bottom line?

Was this directly through illegitimate means or due to internet providers free preview? I could have watched the first episode for free because I’m a subscriber to Xfinity’s internet but no other service. I chose not to. Choices would be to watch on a 22” pc screen, or hook my laptop to the 65”, for one episode? I plan to do what many are. Subscribe for as short a period as possible and binge the season.
I would have been one of those who had carried for $10 a month mostly for original programming. I’d have gone $12 tops. Of course when HBO pulls content from Amazon Prime I may put a few schillings in the coffer to HBO to purchase digital content, but that’ll be one time thing.
 
Almost like someone called for an increase in GoT piracy?
I wish posts like that would include a link.

Something similar... news services have been publishing how to watch it for free. They just say to sign up for free trials from various services and then cancel each one before billing starts.

In others words it's so easy to do anyone can do it. There is something wrong with a business model that makes this possible.

How to Watch 'Game of Thrones' Season 8 Online for Free

Sent from my SM-G965U1 using Tapatalk
 
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I wish posts like that would include a link.

Something similar... news services have been publishing how to watch it for free. They just say to sign up for free trials from various services and then cancel each one before billing starts.

In others words it's so easy to do anyone can do it. There is something wrong with a business model that makes this possible.

How to Watch 'Game of Thrones' Season 8 Online for Free

Sent from my SM-G965U1 using Tapatalk
Dish Network’s Charlie Ergen: HBO Blackout Will Prompt ‘Game Of Thrones’ Piracy – Deadline
 
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Unless a viewer does not have high speed internet (Less than 5-7), it is no issue, just sub to HBO via their streaming service. If you have a Roku or Fire Stick ($30-$50), where there are thousands of free channels that will never be on Dish, Direct, or cable, it is easy. No biggie. The Fire Stick now going for $30 you can sub to HBO and get all of their channels in HD. Even ones Dish did not carry in HD. The price is the same $14.99 a month. No contracts with streaming, you to add the service during Game of Thrones and then drop it. Pick it up again when you want it. No extra fees like with other providers. The Roku has the HBO channels on Demand, the Firestick has them "live" as well as on Demand. Now for the customers that do not have access to high speed, that is a problem. But with cel phone or satellite, even rural areas can get high speed. I only have one regular provider for high speed, Spectrum, but I can get a hot spot from Verizon or satellite if I needed it. I am watching less on Dish these days, as I stream a lot stuff. But with Dish, there is Dish Anywhere, where for no extra charge you can get the streaming side of many channels that are live on Dish. So most of the material is available on Demand. Cinemax is also available streaming on the Firestick. So far not on the Roku as yet though. With Epix from their vault, there are hundreds of old films going back to the 30s I have never seen on Demand. Streaming is fantastic!
 
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Unless a viewer does not have high speed internet (Less than 5-7), it is no issue, just sub to HBO via their streaming service.
Not exactly. I have 175mb service and Dish buffers 3 times a minute for 10 seconds. Netflix runs fine. My internet service has few other devices competing for bandwidth. Ready to drop HBO Now
 
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