Jan 20, 2014 08:55 PM EST
HBO Go is designed to give its subscriber(s) "unlimited access" to the movie channel's full range of content. It's available on every type of device, from one's laptop to a smartphone to an iPad. In a way, it's also free to share
At a somewhat odd Buzzfeed event (Buzzfeed has events?) last week featuring HBO CEO Richard Pleper, Buzzfeed Business Editor Peter Lauria, and a small audience watching them have drinks and talk about the current state of HBO. Pleper made the obvious statement about password sharing: He and his company are aware it's happening. But he followed with perhaps a not so obvious remark: they don't care.
"It's not that we're unmindful of it, it just has no impact on the business," Pleper said.
What he means is that most of the money HBO makes is from subscribers of its TV service. Those customers receive HBO Go for free anyways (and one can't purchase "Go" without going for the TV package) so the beneficiaries of the free online service probably wouldn't be TV customers anyway. In fact, what the company loses (or doesn't gain) in free subscriptions, it gains in new fans. Pleper called the extra accounts a "terrific marketing vehicle for the next generation of viewers."
"We're in the business of creating addicts," he added, as if "Go" was just the free sample to get viewers hooked. Pleper said HBO Go is also an extension of the company's current model: to give viewer's as many options as possible. He refuted the notion that hit show, "Game of Thrones" was carrying the network. "HBO Go is value added - what you want to watch. Right now, that's the right model for us. Are we always thinking about optionality, of course we are always thinking about optionality... if the arithmetic changes and made sense in a different way we are not going to be caught without the ability to pivot" said Pleper.
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