{"id":29062,"date":"2014-10-16T23:38:02","date_gmt":"2014-10-16T15:38:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=29062"},"modified":"2014-10-16T20:00:51","modified_gmt":"2014-10-16T12:00:51","slug":"hbo-plans-stand-alone-streaming-service-but-not-yet-for-canadian-viewers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2014\/10\/16\/hbo-plans-stand-alone-streaming-service-but-not-yet-for-canadian-viewers\/","title":{"rendered":"HBO plans stand alone streaming service, but not yet for Canadian viewers"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"2014-10-16-19_59_51-upload.wikimedia.org_wikipedia_commons_5_52_HBO_Canada_logo.svg\"<\/a><\/p>\n

TORONTO\u2014HBO\u2019s plans to launch a stand-alone streaming service in the United States that will let viewers sidestep their cable company to watch popular shows like \u201cGame of Thrones\u201d and \u201cTrue Detective\u201d could be just a few years away from posing a similar threat to Canadian telecoms.<\/p>\n

While the HBO service won\u2019t be immediately available in Canada, it demonstrates that the U.S. company is prepared to follow a growing number of viewers who are cancelling their cable in favour of services like Netflix.<\/p>\n

The announcement by HBO, which plans to launch its \u201cover-the-top\u201d service next year, increases the possibility it will make inroads into Canada, RBC Capital Markets analyst Drew McReynolds wrote in a note.<\/p>\n

But it\u2019ll still take several years because new HBO programming is under an exclusive licence in Canada to Corus Entertainment (TSX:CJR.B) and Bell Media, until 2018, McReynolds said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe believe Time Warner\u2019s decision to offer HBO Go on a stand-alone basis in its core U.S. market is directionally negative for Corus,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn our eyes, it increases the risk of HBO going \u2018over-the-top\u2019 into Canada when its current output deal with Corus\/Bell expires.\u201d<\/p>\n

Both Corus and Bell issued statements highlighting their existing agreement to be the exclusive distributor of HBO content in Canada.<\/p>\n

On Wednesday, HBO chief executive Richard Plepler told investors in its parent company, Time Warner Inc., that it wants to target the 80 million U.S. households that do not have HBO, but may want to watch its programs.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat is a large and growing opportunity that should no longer be left untapped,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Since HBO first went on the air in 1972, it has been tied down by cable companies who require viewers to pay for expensive packages even if they just wanted the HBO channel. When HBO launched the HBO Go streaming website in the U.S. four years ago, its subscribers were still forced to pay their cable company for TV channels.<\/p>\n

However, a growing number of viewers have been turning off their cable boxes and choosing to stream content from the Internet.<\/p>\n

The CRTC issued a report earlier this year which found over 40 per cent of Canadians said they watched TV over the Internet in 2013, a figure that\u2019s roughly in line with figures from the U.S. where about 45 per cent of Americans stream TV, according to research firm eMarketer.<\/p>\n

Netflix has been a major influence on where viewers turn for entertainment, with original shows like \u201cHouse of Cards\u201d and \u201cOrange is the New Black\u201d available to stream on their subscription service.<\/p>\n

Amazon is also quickly building its reputation with its own subscription streaming service in the U.S., where its producing critically acclaimed shows like \u201cTransparent.\u201d The company has said it doesn\u2019t have plans to launch in Canada yet.<\/p>\n

The CRTC found 29 per cent of English-speaking Canadian adults said they used Netflix for streaming in 2013, up from 21 per cent in 2012.<\/p>\n

About 100,000 fewer Canadian households subscribed to a cable TV or satellite plan last year, though 11.92 million were still paying for packages.<\/p>\n

Those figures have pushed Canadian companies to defend their turf by locking in exclusive agreements with U.S. media companies to ensure hit TV shows don\u2019t wind up on services like Netflix.<\/p>\n

Last month, BCE\u2019s Bell Media (TSX:BCE) signed a deal with HBO that gives them Canadian rights to HBO\u2019s library of television shows, like \u201cSex and the City\u201d and \u201cThe Sopranos.\u201d<\/p>\n

A separate agreement for HBO Canada secured rights for all of the past seasons of HBO shows currently on air, like \u201cGirls\u201d and \u201cVeep.\u201d<\/p>\n

Both deals highlight the struggle between traditional broadcasters and newcomers who are searching for ways to vault the old model.<\/p>\n

The CRTC is in the final stages of a major review of its policy framework for the TV industry, which has sparked passionate viewpoints over a potential pick-and-pay model for cable channels.<\/p>\n

U.S. media giant Viacom made a submission to the regulator saying that unbundling cable packages would send the existing Canadian TV business into a \u201cdeath spiral.\u201d The company threatened to take its content, which includes shows on Spike TV and BET, to a Netflix-like service if the CRTC opts for giving consumers the option to choose which channels they want.<\/p>\n

However, more choice may come at a higher cost, said Duncan Stewart, a director of technology, media and telecom at Deloitte.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is not something that\u2019s just in flux in the United States or Canada, it\u2019s a global phenomenon,\u201d he said in an interview from France.<\/p>\n

Stewart expects that Canadians may be surprised that unbundling cable channels, or paying for an over-the-top service, may be more expensive than they assume.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe may see the price for many of the most-desired services\u2014things like ESPN and HBO\u2014are between $15 and $20 per month,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think a whole lot of people are prepared for that.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

TORONTO\u2014HBO\u2019s plans to launch a stand-alone streaming service in the United States that will let viewers sidestep their cable company …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":29096,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-29062","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","mauthors-david-friend","mauthors-the-canadian-press"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29062","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29062"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29062\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29096"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29062"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29062"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29062"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}