Comcast launching broadband bundle with HBO | Hacker News Reader

Comcast launching broadband bundle with HBO

usatoday.com

28 pointssantadays20 comments

No deal. I currently have HBO Go via paying a relative who has normal cable access and sharing the password. This way HBO Go costs me exactly $20/mo: what I would expect to pay to HBO directly. I also wouldn't be tied to Comcast which isn't bad in my area but isn't great either.

Thanks for the update. What other offers have you passed on?

Sarcasm? I am just stating my view on this since it is relevant. My point is that this offer is not good enough for me to switch to a different mode of operation. I will gladly pay HBO directly, but I refuse to endorse the continuation of this telco + network model.

Has anyone in the U.S. had any success signing up for and using the HBO Go standalone service "HBO Nordic AB" through a VPN? It's only $12 a month in Sweden, Norway, Finland, and Denmark.

Is the content automatically subbed or dubbed, or is English the default?

Usually in Nordic countries, tv and movies are not dubbed but subtitled, so HBO Nordic is also with subtitles but which I think are optional.

I have tried the service in Finland, but haven't actually signed up for it. It might require a local address/credit card.

That's interesting. If that's their only verification, you could probably pretty easily get one of those rechargeable or "gift card" credit cards, and plug in any address you want.

Isn't it that you need to phone in with information like your SSN to activate them? Doesn't seem like you could register any address you'd like.

To activate the credit cards? I'm pretty sure you don't - you just need to plug in any old address and phone number online which aren't verified (at least with the gift card ones), kind of like a burner cell phone.

You might need to get European cards, though, and I'm not sure how they work over there or how easy they are to get.

There is a distinction between prepaid credit cards and gift cards. I'm not sure why, but prepaid credit cards typically require a SSN and gift cards don't.

They end up working just about the same though. You can buy them both at a retail store for cash, and use them just like a credit card anywhere Visa/Amex/Discover/whatever is accepted.

I use HBO Nordic and can confirm that all of the content is in the original language (usually English) with optional subtitles.

HBO right now has a huge lead in terms of content over Netflix. By dragging out the unleashing of HBO Go they are actually letting Netflix catch up to them. They know that untying themselves from Cable is their route in the long term but are dragging it out (probably because Comcast pays them handsomely for it). But by dragging it out they will hurt their long term attractiveness. It only takes bad bets on new content over a couple of years to make people doubt HBO, given Netflix is also making their own content now.

When I read the title I was excited that I would finally be able to buy what would really help them kill Netflix: Let me pay for a cable subscription and stream it anywhere over whatever connection I have. I'd even accept DRM restricted video streams at this point.

Why do you want Netflix killed by Comcast?

I don't, but Comcast does.

When I can access all the channels through my browser I'll be interested.

Looks like they already offer this, but only for new customers. I pay $65 per month for ~25 Mbps of broadband, but with this newer plan it'd be $70 with the same broadband service but comes with 10 basic channels plus HBO. I'd be totally up for that but it's only for new customers, I have no idea why. I don't feel like calling to find out.

http://twitter.com/Funkmon/status/393963445491494912/photo/1

I have Comcast and I currently pay $70 a month for 100Mbps and I still have access to log into HBO Go from when I had HBO last year (before I canceled my cable).

However, none of this makes up for the fact that they're implementing data caps.

Nothing particularly revolutionary here: it's just the cheaper cable package, but now with HBO, which previously required the more expensive packages.

I just switched to Time Warner Cable and they offered me basically the same plan, with 50/5 bandwidth. I forgot the price, as I don't care to pay anything extra for TV.

so I wonder if they will make it available to current subscribers of their cable internet service.

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