HBO Announces Launch Of Standalone Streaming Service In 2015; CEO Richard Plepler Says It Is Time To 'Remove All Barriers' To HBO; Project Set To Have Big Competition With Netflix [PHOTO]

This Wednesday, chairman and CEO of HBO Richard Plepler announced that HBO will launch a stand-along streaming service in 2015. Plepler made the announcement during a Time Warner investor meeting, and it was made clear that viewers would no longer need to pay for HBO on top of their regular cable bills.

Plepler stated, "It is time to remove all barriers to those who want HBO... So, in 2015, we will launch a stand-alone, over-the-top, HBO service in the United States. All in, there are 80 million homes that do not have HBO, and we will use all means at our disposal to go after them," further conveying the drive for the project.

The new streaming service could be quite expensive, though. The Verge reports that, by some estimates, currently having HBO adds roughly $7 to the average monthly cable bill. Various ways to get HBO and Internet together cheaply have been tested, and even those wound up costing upwards of $70 per month.

Big changes could also be made to the entire television industry. Analyst James McQuivey stated, "HBO and ESPN are the two main reasons why people have cable and satellite TV... The whole industry has eyed them for years, nervous that one day they would decide to do exactly what [HBO] said they'll do in 2015. We don't know until we see pricing and packaging how rapidly this will force a change in the way pay TV operators work, but it will definitely force a change."

  According to ABC News, many Americans have already stopped using pay-TV subscriptions. Research done by the firm eMarketer reports that about 45 percent of Americans stream television shows at least once a month, and that number is expected to increase to 53 percent or 175 million people by 2018.

However, the HBO streaming service will face harsh competition with other streaming networks like Netflix and Amazon Prime Instant Video, which have already invested heavily in their own original programming - think "House of Cards," "Orange is the New Black," and "Transparent." 

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HBO
Streaming Service
Richard Plepler
Streaming
James McQuivey
Netflix
Amazon Prime Instant Video
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