I think this makes complete sense for HBO, although as a consumer its pretty irritating. I'm hunting for the reference but I seem to remember reading about (UK) Sky signup accelerating after the launch of Sky Atlantic, which shows HBO content pretty much exclusively, their content brings people to providers. Until the cord cutters outnumber the cable subscribers its not going to change I'm afraid. Also the providers also have their own IPTV solutions so whats the benefit to HBO?