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Comment by jjoonathan | Hacker News Reader

Am I going to be able to give them money in exchange for watching Game of Thrones? Or do they still expect me to mix and match a cable TV package, a "partnered" home entertainment box, and some other nonsense?

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I fear HBO Now will get bundled with whatever other Time Warner channels into some Netflix-like app. You can still pay for HBO without cable, but now instead of $15/mo, it’s going to cost $30 with twice the content (that you didn’t want in the first place). And they’ll expect it to compete with Netflix. I expect for none of this to affect GoT last season, but probably by the time season 3 of Westworld rolls around.

But at least if you have ATT phone service, you’ll be able to watch it for free.

You can subscribe to HBO NOW for $15 a month.

That was an option last season too, but I think I had to have a unique, partnered, non-computer device on which to register the HBO Now account, and the process was broken on the one "acceptable" device I had. I don't remember what it was, but I do remember digging it out of storage and being terribly inconvenienced.

In any case, after two thorough, time-consuming attempts I gave up and mooched of a friend who had recently bought a Roku or something.

Creating a HBO Now account can be done through the web at https://hbonow.com/

You need a web browser.

In that case, I'm cautiously optimistic that they've reconsidered the nonsense!

You can buy Game of Thrones on iTunes if you find that preferable to a subscription. I believe this is the case for all HBO shows.

(By contrast, Netflix shows are not available on iTunes. I had to wait a year for Stranger Things to come out on BluRay...)

If you live in a country where they offer HBO Now, you should be able to do it today. You'll still need a box of some type to consume the content, but it looks like they're covering all of the major players[0].

[0]: https://www.hbo.com/order/hbo-now-devices

You can use a modern web browser to play the content. Safari works without issues for me.

No need for a extra device of any sort.

Knowing they're owned by ATT, once Sonic installs my fiber I'm going to ditch Comcast and explicitly avoid spending money on any of this telco-aligned junk.

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