HBO Responds to Internet's 'Take My Money!' Campaign
2:32 PM PDT 6/6/2012 by Paul Bond
Helen Sloan/HBO
Fans of "Game of Thrones" and "True Blood" want the cable channel to offer an online-only option for subscribers.
HBO on Wednesday acknowledged an online effort by fans trying to convince the cable channel to offer its shows to subscribers who wish to view them exclusively via the Internet. Their answer appears to be: No.
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At the site, TakeMyMoneyHBO.com, its creators wrote: "We pirate Game of Thrones, we use our friend's HBO GO login to watch True Blood… Please HBO, offer a standalone HBO GO streaming service and "Take My Money!""
The site also asks visitors to tweet how much money they'd pay for such a service, and the average after 1,071 submissions, according to Tech Crunch, was $12.30 a month.
In response to the "Take My Money" campaign, HBO tweeted Wednesday: "Love the love for HBO. Keep it up." Then it linked to the Tech Crunch article.
HBO didn't respond to a request for its thoughts on offering an Internet-only product. the New York Times concluded on Wednesday, though, that HBO wasn't interested, based on the fact that the cable channel also tweeted a link to the Tech Crunch article, and the tweet included the line that the story's author, Ryan Lawler, "has it right."
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Lawler spent multiple paragraphs on why he thought it didn't make sense for HBO to offer a Web-only product.
"Going direct to online customers by pitching HBO Go over-the-top would mean losing the support of its cable, satellite and IPTV distributors," he wrote. "And since the Comcasts and the Time Warner Cables of the world are the top marketing channel for premium networks like HBO, it would be nearly impossible for HBO to make up for the loss of the cable provider's marketing team or promotions."
Paul Bond
Paul.Bond@thr.com @thr