Comcast Still Blocking HBO Go On Roku (And Now Playstation 3), Incapable Of Explaining Why
from the crash-the-gatekeepers dept
For years, HBO and Time Warner have refused to give people what they want and offer a standalone streaming video service, because they're afraid of shaking up their cozy, promotion-heavy relationship with the cable industry. Instead, HBO's Go streaming service has been made available on desktops and a growing number of devices, TVs, set tops and game consoles -- provided you log in with your traditional cable subscriber information. It's a half-measure, and availability to this day remains a little fractured.Case in point: Sony this week finally made HBO Go available on the Playstation 3 (despite HBO Go launching in early 2010), but not the new Playstation 4. The new Playstation 3 version works for most cable operators in the country -- except for users on Comcast. Why not? Comcast doesn't really give an answer other than to say the massive (and soon to get much larger) company only has so many people available to ensure TV Everywhere authentication works on new devices:
"With every new website, device or player we authenticate, we need to work through technical integration and customer service which takes time and resources. Moving forward, we will continue to prioritize as we partner with various players."Which might almost sound like a reasonable explanation -- until you realize that HBO Go on Roku hasn't worked for Comcast users since 2011, despite Roku being one of the most prominent Internet streaming devices available. Apparently, it's a matter of priorities? Comcast's argument for being allowed to acquire companies is always that these acquisitions make them bigger and more efficient. So apparently, getting simple TV authentication to work takes Comcast years longer than every other pay TV operator because Comcast is simply too big, efficient and fantastic?
Now, Playstation 3 users have joined the Roku user chorus, asking Comcast in their official forums why they can't use HBO Go, and are being greeted by the same silence Roku owners have enjoyed for years. I'm not sure you can get away with calling this a net neutrality violation (I think the term is mutated to the point of uselessness anyway), given HBO Go on Roku will work if you have Comcast broadband -- but get HBO from another pay TV provider like Dish. Still, it's fairly curious how Comcast's own Internet video and on-demand offerings (which include HBO content) tend to take priority.
The problem illustrates once again how the TV Industry's "TV Everywhere" mindset fails because it winds up taking value away from the user, not delivering it. It's also another shining example of how HBO should shake off its fears, embrace innovation, leapfrog the gatekeepers and release the standalone Internet streaming app everyone has been clamoring for.
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Filed Under: cable, hbo go, playstation, streaming, television, tv everywhere
Companies: comcast, hbo, roku
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The power of...
Ah yes... Exploitation. Buy your competition, use their services, ignore customer service, and nickel and dime your captive audience until the government regulates. Meanwhile, the services are carbon copies of what you can do online with nothing to actually compete against their business model while more money flows to shareholders wanting more money in the short term.
Amazing how monopolies work to screw over the public.
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Re: The power of...
Wait... They do which is why people use them instead of old services. Crap.
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Re: The power of...
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Re: Re: The power of...
Knocking out Net Neutrality through the judicial system sure doesn't enact confidence though so I have no idea why blaming the government for everything will help the problem.
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Re: The power of...
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Re: LESS competition
And it makes sense if you think about it from their point of view. You could spend $50 ish dollars on a Roku, and watch the HBO that you're already paying them for... OR they could make it not available, and so for you to watch HBO in the other room... well now you need a cable box. And that's what... $10 or $15 dollars a month that now goes to them. They don't mind giving it to you on your lap top or your mobile devices. Those you actually take with you ON THE GO. But not a roku. That's on your TV, in your house, where one of their boxes can go.
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Not just Roku and PS3
I have the 90Gbps "burst" internet service from Comcast. It still gives me dropouts when watching Netflix.
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Re: Not just Roku and PS3
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Re: Not just Roku and PS3
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Makes me glad...
Even before I cut the cord, I avoided HBO because of their lackluster and incomplete movie selection. For their original content, it's cheaper to just wait and buy it on DVD/BD.
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Eh???
Surely the more logical way to handle this would be for HBO to ensure their app works on whatever devices they want it to work on, and any authentication of users required happens behind the scenes (from the user's perspective) between HBO and the internet provider?
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Re: Eh???
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Re: Eh???
That's not really possible*. HBO cannot authenticate you with a TV provider unless you give them some authentication information (username and password) to pass on to the TV (cable/satellite) provider. Since you said "between HBO and the internet provider" you may be only considering the case where the person's ISP and cable provider are the same company, but that is by no means everyone.
Even for those cases, silent authentication would be far from perfect. For example, whether I'm authorized depends on who I am, not where I am. The only way HBO could authenticate you with your ISP is via your IP address, but somebody else could be on your home wifi, or you could be somewhere that isn't your home, so that technique really isn't adequate even for that subset of people.
For everyone else (like me, for example, cable internet and Dish TV) HBO has no idea who to even try to authenticate with, let alone how, unless the user tells them.
* as long as HBO insists that you subscribe to HBO on TV in order to get HBO Go, and if you didn't know about that, that would explain your confusion
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Re: Eh???
The cable provider is not authenticating the device. I don't know where you get that impression.
Let's use a PS3 for example. Any user with a PS3 can run the HBO Go app. That doesn't mean they can actual access the content. What has to happen first is the authentication in the background that you mentioned, but it is between HBO (who is providing the content) and your cable provider (who can prove to HBO that you are paying for that content). The Internet provider plays no part in this equation. That is why I can use Comcast as my Internet provider, use Dish Network as my cable/satellite provider, and a PS3 to access HBO Go. HBO will reach out to Dish Network for authentication, not Comcast in this scenario.
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HBO... yes, the program you *HAVE* to pirate until a DVD/DB is released...
Eventually both will release DVDs or BDs and you can buy them (something I always do, for the shows I watched beyond the pilot), but they sure don't make it easy to get access.
How about a service, where I can get access to all those shows in a timely manner for, say, ten to 15 USD/month. No DRM or other silly limitations which are basically just annoying and get circumvented in minutes. I've no issue with watermarks to track down those who publish the media. But anything beyond that, ie. anything that limits my playback options, because DRM scheme A is not available on platform B, would be a no-go for me. I'm not paying money to not be able to watch the stuff wherever I want.
But, judging from the slow progress on the music industry front, I'd say the movie/TV industry is a good decade away from realizing, that fighting your customers is not a sustainable business plan.
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Re: HBO... yes, the program you *HAVE* to pirate until a DVD/DB is released...
Which is not piracy under any reasonable definition of "piracy".
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Re: Re: HBO... yes, the program you *HAVE* to pirate until a DVD/DB is released...
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Re: Re: Re: HBO... yes, the program you *HAVE* to pirate until a DVD/DB is released...
Therefore the VPN+foreign credit card option is not really an option at all. Because what the service is effectively telling me is: go away, we do not want your money. Don't forget, that I would have to pay the VPN and credit card upfront, ie. before I know, whether a given show is to my tastes.
I simply don't understand, why there isn't an option, to just buy a season of some show without any funny restrictions. Just take Steam or the Humble Store as an example: a few clicks from anywhere on this world, and you get the content. In the case of the Humble Store often even without any DRM at all. And in the remaining cases with acceptable forms of DRM like watermarked executables and one-time registration with Steam or something similar.
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Re: HBO... yes, the program you *HAVE* to pirate until a DVD/DB is released...
I know what you meant is "... if you are going to watch it" but you don't *have to* pirate it. You can wait, or not watch it.
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Petition FCC to block Comcast Time Warner Merger
https://secure.consumersunion.org/site/Advocacy?cmd=display&page=UserAction&id=2879
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Easy to watch on Roku however
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Yeahhhh
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Yeahhhh
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Re:
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comcast
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