Rejoice, cord-cutters. HBO has announced it will launch its own online video streaming service next year, no cable TV subscription needed. 
 
 Until now, HBO's streaming service, HBO GO, has required users to have an HBO subscription, but in an investor meeting on Wednesday, HBO chairman and CEO Richard Plepler acknowledged that this model excludes the some 10 million homes in the U.S. that are now broadband-only. And that number is only expected to grow. "That is a large and growing opportunity that should no longer be left untapped," Plepler said. "It is time to remove all barriers to those who want HBO." 
 
 For those who have been watching the cord-cutter revolution, HBO's move is a long time coming. The HBO GO subscription model has always felt like a half-baked attempt at the over-the-top TV market. Plus, a poorly kept secret about HBO GO has always been that you don't really need a subscription to watch unlimited HBO content online. You just need to know someone—or know someone who knows someone—with a subscription and is willing to share his password. That means that a whole lot of us are basically getting full access to HBO without paying a penny. With a standalone service, in other words, HBO will finally be able to collect on all that binge Game of Thrones watching you've been doing on your cousin's boyfriend's roommate's account. 
 
 What's most unusual about this change in events, though, is the fact that many consumers are actually ready and willing the pay HBO for this kind of thing. Two years ago, a site called TakeMyMoneyHbo.com launched, and asked people how much they'd pay for a standalone service. The site got more than 163,000 visitors in the first 48 hours and found that the average person would pay around $12 a month. 
 
 Consumers wanted this service because, with so many options for watching traditional television online—from Netflix to Hulu to Amazon Prime Instant Video—access to HBO has been one of the last remaining reasons to stick with cable. Better to pony up the $12 a month than fork over $120 or more for cable. 
 
 So, why then did HBO take so long to break away from cable? The answer may be that HBO was under tremendous pressure from cable companies, who are finding themselves struggling to compete with the emergence of low-cost services like Netflix. Angering them could potentially jeopardize HBO's relationship with the cable companies, who could then slap HBO with higher fees for carrying their content. 
 
 But in recent years, the power seems to have shifted. As HBO has become more and more beloved and cable companies have become more and more reviled, the odds of HBO winning a fight against a massive cable company are much higher. Many people still subscribe to cable to get HBO, meaning if say, Comcast, were to hit HBO with higher fees or terminate its service, Comcast might very well lose customers, too. 
 
 Meanwhile, another new cultural trend may also be adding to the pressure HBO is feeling to launch such a service. It's not cord cutting, per se, but "cord shaving," a phenomenon recently explored by The Wall Street Journal, in which consumers are keeping cable, but cutting add-on channels like ESPN or the Food Network. As more HBO-quality content emerges from companies like Netflix and Amazon, it's possible that this cord-shaving trend could hit HBO particularly hard if it doesn't act fast. 
 
 HBO already tiptoed toward the unbundled future earlier this year, announcing a deal that would give Amazon Prime members unlimited access to some older HBO content. Now, it seems HBO is ready to fully take the plunge. Details on the new service's name, how much it will cost, and what content will be available are still unclear, but one thing is sure: cable companies should be very, very afraid. ||||| HBO says it’s finally ready: Sometime in the next year the pay-TV service will be selling a Web-only offering. 
 
 HBO CEO Richard Plepler, speaking at an investor presentation hosted by HBO parent company Time Warner, said the company will start selling in 2015 a digital version of its service that won’t require a pay-TV subscription. 
 
 Plepler said the company will go “beyond the wall” and launch a “stand-alone, over the top” version of HBO in the U.S. next year, and would work with “current partners,” and may work with others as well. But he wouldn’t provide any other detail. 
 
 Even that vague statement is a milestone for HBO, Time Warner and the TV business in general. For years, Time Warner and HBO have said they’re happy with the existing system, where HBO is sold to consumers by TV providers, and is usually only available to customers who are already buying another bundle of TV networks. 
 
 That arrangement helped generate $4.9 billion in revenue for HBO last year, and also kept pay-TV providers like Comcast* happy. 
 
 But now, under pressure from investors to show that Time Warner can extract more value from HBO, Plepler and Time Warner seem willing to risk upsetting that structure. The move will also be seen as a response to the rise of Netflix, which has more than 50 million subscribers for its Web video service, and may generate more revenue than HBO this year. 
 
 The upside is that HBO will be able to market itself to customers who don’t want to buy a full “bundle” of pay-TV channels, or may not get any pay-TV package at all, a number Plepler pegged at 10 million. The downside is that the Comcasts of the world, which HBO will still want to market its service, may punish the company. 
 
 Other big TV networks have also discussed an interest in selling programming directly to consumers. ESPN, for instance, has said it will sell a package of NBA games to digital subscribers in the next few years. But in that case, the company has taken pains to argue that it won’t sell a product that competes with the one it’s already selling via pay TV. 
 
 Plepler’s brief statement about its “over the top” plans didn’t spell out the way the company would market and deliver HBO on the Web. It’s possible that the company will build out its own technology to do so. But I’ve also heard industry sources suggest that HBO would work with other companies that are already selling video on the Web, like Amazon and Hulu, to deliver its programming. HBO already has a wide-ranging content deal with Amazon. 
 
 He also didn’t discuss whether the Web version of HBO will be a mirror of the version available to pay-TV customers. Analysts have previously suggested that HBO might consider a “windowed” version of its TV service on the Web, where shows like “True Detective” and “Game of Thrones” don’t appear until months after they debut on TV. 
 
 It’s important to note that much of Plepler’s presentation focused on HBO’s plans to build out its traditional business, by getting better terms from its existing pay-TV partners, and by getting pay-TV subscribers who aren’t paying for HBO to sign on — while continuing to pay for other TV channels. 
 
 Here’s the press release: 
 
 Speaking at the Time Warner Inc. Investor Meeting today, Richard Plepler, chairman and CEO, HBO, announced that the company will offer a stand-alone HBO streaming service in 2015. Following a portion of his presentation focused on HBO’s domestic business, during which he cited significant growth opportunities inside the pay-TV universe, Plepler then turned to the current ten million broadband-only homes, which is projected to grow. Plepler then added: “That is a large and growing opportunity that should no longer be left untapped. It is time to remove all barriers to those who want HBO. “So, in 2015, we will launch a stand-alone, over-the-top, HBO service in the United States. We will work with our current partners. And, we will explore models with new partners. All in, there are 80 million homes that do not have HBO and we will use all means at our disposal to go after them.” 
 
 * Comcast owns NBCUniversal, which is a minority investor in Revere Digital, Re/code’s parent company.
– Finally, the moment many would-be cord-cutters have been waiting for: HBO says that next year, it will offer a "stand-alone, over the top" version of its service. Those are the words used by CEO Richard Plepler at an investor presentation; a press release after the fact called it a "stand-alone HBO streaming service," but the company hasn't said much beyond that. Re/code uses the words "Web-only offering" and "a digital version of its service that won’t require a pay-TV subscription" to describe what's coming. But no other details are yet known, including exactly how HBO will market and deliver the new version. Some industry sources have suggested it could partner with a service like Amazon or Hulu rather than building its own tech. Also unknown is how similar it will be to the existing HBO Go; some have suggested HBO might prefer to roll out a version that offers only new shows months after they premiere on traditional TV. (In other streaming news, click to see what's coming to Netflix.)