HBO, Cinemax coming to Comcast's On Demand Online
By Richard Lawler 
posted Jul 13th 2009 6:21PM
posted Jul 13th 2009 6:21PM
HOME BOX OFFICE AND COMCAST TO LAUNCH HBO® AND CINEMAX® ON BROADBAND FOR THE FIRST TIME NATIONALLY THROUGH ON DEMAND ONLINE
The HBO and Cinemax Broadband Services, Featuring Award-Winning Original Programming, Theatrical Films and More, To Be Made Available For Free to Comcast's HBO and Cinemax Subscribers
New York, NY and Philadelphia, PA, July 13, 2009 – Home Box Office, Inc. and Comcast Corporation (NASDAQ: CMCSA, CMCSK) today announced a partnership that will offer award-winning television and movie content from HBO and Cinemax online for the first time as an added value to Comcast's HBO and Cinemax customers nationwide. The HBO and Cinemax broadband services will be available as part of Comcast's On Demand Online trial, accessible via Comcast.net and Fancast.com. On Demand Online is a new service that will significantly expand the number of top-rated TV choices available online to Comcast cable customers free of charge.
The HBO and Cinemax broadband services will initially provide a combined total of 750 hours a month of programming and will grow over time. HBO and Cinemax will greatly enhance On Demand Online's line-up which already includes hit programming from and Time Warner Inc.'s Turner networks TNT and TBS, as well as Starz.
At launch, the HBO and Cinemax broadband services on Comcast's On Demand Online will include:
* Full-length episodes of current and classic HBO series like True Blood®, HungSM, Entourage®, Curb Your Enthusiasm®, The Wire®, Sex and the City®, The Sopranos® and Real Time with Bill Maher.
* Popular theatrical movies including Transformers, The Dark Knight, Tropic Thunder, Atonement, Brokeback Mountain, Michael Clayton, Shrek the Third, Kung Fu Panda, Get Smart, The Bourne Ultimatum, The X-Files: I Want to Believe. Titles coming soon include: Juno, Dr. Seuss' Horton Hears A Who, Mama Mia! and Burn After Reading.
* Top classic films such as Jurassic Park, Big, Mrs. Doubtfire, Speed and Rosemary's Baby.
* HBO Family programming including enduring favorites like Harold and the Purple Crayon.
Following the launch, HBO and Cinemax programming will be updated frequently, with subscribers able to choose from a number of programs in HD including HBO Films, series, documentaries, sports, specials and comedy as well as theatrical films. Customers will be able to view certain new programs online immediately after they air on television and will have access to an extensive library of past programming.
"On the heels of the TV Everywhere agreement between Time Warner and Comcast, we're pleased to be partnering with Comcast to deliver our HBO and Cinemax broadband services on a national level," said Eric Kessler, HBO Co-President. "The broadband services are the latest in a line of digital offerings that have dramatically changed the viewing experience for our subscribers, providing them with more access, choice, and even greater value to their subscriptions."
"HBO is an iconic brand with award winning original programming and exclusive feature films and we are thrilled they are joining us in our mission to make our services available online to our customers," said Matt Bond, Executive Vice President of Content Acquisition for Comcast. "For the first time HBO and Cinemax customers around the country will be able to watch their favorite shows and movies online at no additional cost. This agreement is an important milestone in our long-term strategy of enabling customers to watch popular television and movie content when and where they want it."
In a joint announcement last month, Time Warner Inc. and Comcast introduced a set of principles called "TV Everywhere." Developed by the two companies, the principles are designed to serve as a framework to facilitate deployment of online television content in a way that is consumer friendly, pro-competitive and at no additional cost to customers.
The HBO and Cinemax broadband services will be part of Comcast's technical trial of On Demand Online with approximately 5,000 customers from across the U.S. in the coming weeks – the first national trial of its kind. A major focus of the trial is to test Comcast's new "authentication" technology, which will allow Comcast customers to receive the same content online for free that they subscribe to on TV. The service will utilize a simple log-on system for streaming content and, in the future, will allow for download content to go. The On Demand Online service will roll-out in phases, adding new features, functionality and content over time to provide consumers with a new way to watch television.
On Demand Online is part of Comcast's Project Infinity, the company's long-term vision to give customers an ever growing amount of video content on multiple platforms, whenever they want.
I LOVE Entourage. Ari cracks me the fuck up.... and so does Johnny Drama.
season premier brought up some good plot lines. looking forward to the new season
Agreed, I can't get enough of that show.
Entourage is fuckin awesome.
Yeah, lookin' forward to the new season. Entourage rocks.
I'm never home to watch TV, work unusual hours, now I can catch Entourage and True Blood online yay! I hope they go ahead with this..
Season 6 is on guys, gonna be an awesome season!
Llyod taking a stand really brought a tear to my eye. Also, is that really Turtle? My god he's lost weight.
Well if you're dating Meadow Soprano in real life, you're gonna lose weight no matter how much you love to eat.
;)
Fuck Comcast!
are you guys trolling? That was one of the worst season openers in Entourage history...
^
Have to agree with you, it was pretty boring.
Cinemax fap fap
oh boy, Cinemax. Finally, a chance to get soft-core pornography online.
BTW, You were good in Man on the Moon.
Wait so I can already get some On Demand online? How do I do this?
I don't get it.
The largest group of people that would want to see cable streams online are people without cable. It may be an added benefit, but why would someone want to downgrade their viewing experience to a computer screen, if they already have access to a DVR connected to a large TV?
I can see this appealing to a very small subset of the existing cable subscribers, whereas it just infuriates all non-cable subscribers that Comcast (and others) continues to wall off access to content from cable channel providers.
You're right about the first part- but the majority of the time I'd be using this is when I'm traveling, or at a friend's place who doesn't have cable. I think the intended use would be for when you're not at home.
When I'm not working, I don't like sitting still. We haven't had a TV at home for the past 5 years because non of the people I live with miss it either. I can watch online at work so it's perfect for me.
I suppose it would work if you had to go out of town and didn't want to wait until later to watch it...
Bright House has had it for years. GG Comcast!
ddd
Entourage is my favorite show! Awesome. To bad my parents don't know what it's about , and I;m 14, so I get to see "everything" , hahaahh .
Well this seems really great and all- until you factor in the 250 gb download limit Comcast has.
You'd better be watching where your bandwith is going--- watching all this in HD will eat up your allowed monthly bandwith.
Not sure I can enjoyably watch HD content without worrying if Im approaching the limit.
Comcast: why don't you have an online site/method to see your monthly usage?! I have multiple pcs and consoles-- I can't keep track how many demos/videos/etc. they all use.
Very frustrating :-(
Having an HTPC in the living room only makes it that much worse--- waking up to see a friend that crashed on the couch has watched a whole season of some show in HD.
For once in his lifetime the little McNugget delivered.