HBO Without Cable Goes on Sale Next Year

Rejoice, cord-cutters! HBO will start selling its services without requiring customers to buy a television subscription. Sometime in 2015, HBO will launch a “stand alone, over the top” version for the Web, said CEO Richard Plepler. He estimated that there are about 10 million potential customers who want to purchase HBO subscriptions but do not want to buy “bundles” of cable stations or a television set at all. The move to offer digital-only packages is seen as a response to the rise of Netflix, as well as the pressure to allow Time Warner to extract more value from their partnership. Plepler did not elaborate on any details regarding the pricing or what the HBO service will include.