And then, the TV gods gave everyone HBO. After the launch of HBO Now on Apple TV Tuesday, Sling TV announced Wednesday that it will also be offering HBO on its OTT service. (LostRemote)
The new streaming service had planned to add HBO to the service Wednesday, but postponed the move to first update its core functions. The updates will “improve the overall Sling TV experience,” said Sling TV’s Danielle Johnson. (USA Today)
The service will add HBO—for an additional $15 per month—by Saturday, April 11. And the company claims it’s now ready for the masses. On Sling TV, the addition of HBO stands to attract more people to the fledgling 20-channel service, aimed at price-sensitive consumers who don’t want to pay for a full-blown cable TV package. Over this past weekend, some users of the service experienced errors when they tried to watch the Final Four games of the NCAA March Madness men’s basketball tournament on Turner networks. Now, with HBO coming on board, Sling TV says it’s upgrading its applications to “reduce overhead and load on our servers.” (Variety)
The HBO Now app is, for the most part, available on Apple devices for the time being. On Tuesday, ahead of Sunday’s premiere of Season 5 of Game of Thrones, HBO Now was released for Apple devices, including the iPhone, iPad and Apple TV. Cablevision’s broadband customers can also get access to the service through an Apple device or computer web browser. The HBO Now service costs $15 a month, though the first month is free. (NYT)