HBO said it has expanded the reach of HBO Now, its standalone OTT subscription service, to the Xbox One, Xbox 360 and new Samsung smart TVs in time for Sunday’s season six premiere of Game of Thrones.
HBO said the OTT service can be bought directly through the app via 2016 Samsung smart TVs, noting that HBO Now will be offered “soon” on 2015 Tizen-powered Samsung smart TVs (Tizen is Samsung’s home-grown OS for mobiles, wearables, in connected vehicles that became part of its smart TV strategy last year.).
On Xbox, HBO said it’s letting all of those users watch the first episode of season six of GoT after its April 24 premiere (from April 25 to April 28).
The $14.99 per month HBO Now was launched last April. The service ended 2015 with about 800,000 subs, and was approaching 1 million subs, Time Warner CEO Jeff Bewkes said at an investors conference in March.
HBO Now is supported on several other platforms, including the Amazon Fire TV and Fire TV Stick, Apple TV (second-generation and above), select Android TV-powered devices, Roku players and Roku TVs, the Google Chromecast adapter, iOS and Android mobile devices, Amazon Fire tablets, and Web browsers.
“We’re thrilled to give HBO NOW subscribers easy access to all that HBO has to offer through their Xbox console,” Jeff Dallesandro, SVP, worldwide digital distribution and business development at HBO, said in a statement. “Xbox has proven to be a favorite platform for HBO audiences to stream their beloved HBO shows and movies and we are excited about this next big step in our partnership.”
“The anticipation for Game of Thrones is at an all-time high so we’re thrilled to bring HBO NOW to Samsung TV users in time for the new season,” he added. “By streaming HBO NOW directly on a Samsung TV, consumers can watch epic, event-level programming in premium quality on a big screen—making for a tremendous viewing experience.”
