I think that HBO are quietly positioning themselves to prosper when the cable bubble finally bursts, though- HBOGO is great. Compare that to Showtime, for example, whose app offerings are widely panned.
I'm not so sure. HBOGO is exclusively an add-on to the cable service. Its present quality is irrelevant to the post-cable world as it is completely incapable of gaining traction outside of the "cable bubble." It is basically a tree falling in a forest where nobody can hear it. In the far-off future when HBO gets with the times, who knows what Showtime and everyone else's offerings will look like?
I don't think the idea is to gain traction, but to be ready to switch to a non-addon model when the bubble bursts. Espn and HBO have set themselves up with excellent apps and web services. Right now they are (frustratingly) only available to cable subscribers, but if at some point in the future we see a mass exodus from cable companies then all they need to do is add a way to pay them directly and they have a full, independent subscription service.
HBO is gaining a lot of traction outside of the US, especially in Scandinavia with HBO Nordic (HBO GO equivalent without a cable subscription). So they have the platform to do it, which means if the cable market starts plummeting they can pivot and start offering it as a seperate package rather than an add-on for cable.
I have hope that they will do this, but looking at the history it's far from certain.
My guess is this is exactly what they're planning to do, but that a revenue tipping point hasn't been reached in the US yet: cable subscriptions still provide too much money for them to be willing to flip the switch. Experimenting in Scandinavia lets them lay the groundwork without prematurely giving up the huge US cable revenue stream.
Thats why they are testing the waters with HBO Nordic in the scandinavian countries (I reside in Denmark). My experience so far has been that HBO Nordic is compared to Netflix hitting more quality programming than netflix, but Netflix is quickly catching up (especially with House of Cards), and since netflix is monthly based, and HBO Nordic is 6months prepaid, and netflix has good solutions for mobile.
