Subscription without cable. Obviously, HBO's entire business model is based on its cable subscribers and relationship to cable companies. That doesn't mean I can't dream of HBO boldly letting people pay directly for HBO Go's services. If HBO can sell episodes on iTunes, then there must be some cheap ugg boots model where a modified HBO Go could work for non cable folk such as myself. Maybe that means I don't get the latest seasons, or I suffer some delay compared with "HBO Go Plus" subscribers. Whatever it is, I would pay for my noncable HBO, but HBO won't let me.
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If it must require cable to work, then don't limit by cable provider. Time Warner Cable customers can't use HBO Go. Cox customers can. This some-have-it, some-don't system is incredibly confusing, especially since the actual HBO Go app once activated can work anywhere regardless of location in the U.S. Finding your code is also confusing, and doesn't christian louboutin pumps attract customers. Then again, HBO Go isn't really about getting customers as much as it is about offering a new service to existing customers. Which brings me to...

Offer pricing tiers. Netflix will allow you to pay as little as $7.99, but far more than that depending on what you order. HBO Go could explore offering packages of service as an alternative to requiring the whole cable subscription. I'm not going to pay a minimum $55 a month extra for a ticket to access HBO Go.

Work on more devices. Netflix's instant-streaming brilliance rides mainly on how many devices it supports. Everything from laptops to TiVos, Blu-ray players and TVs, even the Xbox 360, PS3, Wii, and Nintendo 3DS have Netflix. Its ubiquity gives it power. HBO Go is available on iOS devices, Android, and via Web browser, but it should be everywhere. moncler sale Quite possibly, HBO Go was designed to be mobile and not be a TV/set-box app, but it's available for Google TV hardware, so why not elsewhere?

I never really cared about TV when I watched it via cable. That's why I disconnected over a year ago. DVRs helped keep short-lists for much-watched shows, but for me, on-demand viewing has always been the way I've liked to go through seasons. I watch in bursts. I'm a big fan of doing the same on Netflix, Hulu Plus, and HBO Go, all of them great at offering me a to-do list of what to watch.

It took a summer trial of HBO Go on the iPad to sneak its seductive hooks in me. Really, I left cable television over a year and a half ago because of its cost. Cable's offerings are myriad, and DVRs are easy ways of hoarding content, but there's too much out there and DVR hard drives fill up like out-of-control e-mail boxes, suddenly in desperate need of watch-and-delete weekends. Streaming on demand is the easy counter-solution, but most streaming services feel broken in some key way, either via a hobbled catalog or the video quality.

HBO Go is the perfect go-between--a video service that's elegantly laid-out, has a deep, comprehensive back-episode catalog, and looks crystal-clear on the iPad. As I've lamented, though, the service is only offered as an unlockable wholesale abercrombie and fitch bonus for cable subscribers who already pay for HBO, and only for a subset of those customers at that. What a shame, though--because unlike IP address-based services like Time Warner's app, HBO Go works anywhere, like Netflix. I signed up for a press trial courtesy of an e-mail address/code sent to me by HBO. It didn't require any location-based authentication, and it works in a similar way to activating iPad magazine subscriptions via a code from a print magazine. Theoretically, there's no need to tie the service to old-fashioned cable--it just happens to be the way HBO earns revenue.

I want the content and features of HBO Go, and the pricing/availability of Netflix. I know that's asking for an impossibility, but if the two services got a little more like each other, maybe I'd find myself enjoying both just a little bit more--and paying for the services more reliably, too.

I simply won't pay more than $50 to climb back up the cable tiers to get access to HBO Go. It's a shame, because that HBO Go is pretty fantastic. It's just not $600-plus-a-year fantastic. I understand HBO Go as a tool to keep current customers--I'd just like it to function as a way to angle for new customers like myself, too.