OK lets start to untangle this mess at the start of the story.
If you pay for HBO as part of a TV package and relied on HBO Go as a streaming portal to on-demand access to HBO content you are going to lose access via HBO Go on August first. If you are an HBO Now subscriber, you will still be able to get access to HBO content. But the app that supplies it will no longer be called HBO Now. The app you will use to access HBO content will simply be called, HBO. This is as close to a workaround as HBO and Roku and Fire TV users can get to as far as providing content to users in the middle of their respective fights.
HBO will be retiring both the HBO Now brand and the HBO Go branding this month as it transitions to eventually make HBO Max the only streaming portal to HBO content on every platform. This will be sure to increase the number of people who activate accounts or subscribe to HBO Max as the other options will no longer be there. I’m sure the press release next month will be very impressive.
Where things get a bit more convoluted is for the HBO pay TV subscribers. Obviously they will still have access to the HBO linear channel via their cable TV box. They will still have access to the live feed of the network. And for many that would probably be just fine. Especially if they also have a DVR included in their service. But if they have gotten used to HBO Go as their destination for non-appointment TV they are going to have to make an adjustment. Now, we don’t know for sure the the HBO app won’t have a portal where HBO subscribers could sign in and authenticate. HBO obviously has the technology and infrastructure to deliver two sign in options on the same app. HBO Max already supports that. We do know that HBO will be keeping the website, hbogo.com available until August 31. But that does not translate to TV Set-top boxes. So what is there to do? We have a recommendation.
I can not speak for every cable system out there, but let’s not ignore that most digital cable systems have their own on-demand interfaces built in to their services. It’s probably even got a dedicated button on those God awful giant remotes. Anybody who is concerned about getting HBO content on-demand should first look to their current provider before panicking about whether the HBO Go app will exist anymore. More so, if watching on demand is of big concern users could also cancel HBO with their cable providers and instead sign up for HBO via its app. Sure it means stopping subscription in one place and setting up a new billing arrangement, but at least you would be able to sign in to a streaming app and watch what you want when you want to.
Have no doubt. The minute that HBO Max is available on Roku and or Fire TV the current HBO app will either update itself and become HBO Max or the HBO Max app will appear in the respective app stores and the HBO app will disappear.
