HBO’s Standalone Streaming Service Won’t Be Available In Australia

When HBO announced it would release a stand-alone streaming service a few weeks ago, we raised our collective hopes that it would come to Australia rather than just be a US-exclusive. Sadly, our hopes have been dashed: it’s only going to be available to customers in the US.

You can sign up for alerts about the service on HBO Now’s website no matter where you are in the world, but there’s a small caveat that dashes the hopes of Aussie streamers:

HBO NOW is only accessible in the U.S. and certain U.S. territories where a high-speed broadband connection is available.

Sigh.

It’s unsurprising that Australia would miss out on HBO Now, given that local Pay TV giant, Foxtel, has a stranglehold over the rights to HBO’s content here. That means all your favourite shows will still be tough to get access to unless you have a Foxtel subscription, either via a set-top box or its standalone Play subscription service, rather than the $US14.99 HBO Now service.

HBO Now is the cable TV provider’s standalone streaming and catch-up service that is set to launch later on in the year, exclusive to the Apple TV. The head of HBO, Richard Plepler, debuted the service at Apple’s spring forward event a few weeks ago, announcing it would be exclusive to the Apple TV at launch. It will be the first time HBO will offer its content to users who aren’t already subscribed to its cable channel in the US.

We live in hope that HBO will bring it here one day.


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