The recent announcement that HBO Now, the over the top HBO subscription option for cord cutters, will be $15 a month raises an important question, “Is it worth $180 a year”? Let’s break this down and see what you could do with $180 a month (please note we are just going to roll the .99 cents up to the next dollar for the ease of reading).
So, for $180 you could get:
The Newsroom for $17
Game of Thrones for $39
Silicon Valley for $23
Girls for $15
You could get 4 seasons of HBO shows for $94; leaving you $86 extra to put towards an Amazon Prime membership or Netflix subscription (all the listed prices are for the HD version).
In our recent survey of /r/CordCutters subReddit over 60% of the subscribers already had an Amazon Prime membership which gave them access to a back catalog of 89 HBO Shows. In addition to the HBO back catalog it also gave them access to thousands of movies and TV shows free with their subscription (that is not even counting the free books, music, and more).
The HBO deal with Amazon also brings new HBO seasons to the network just a few months after they air on HBO.
So the question is, “How many shows a year do you watch on HBO?” Are you like us and subscribed to Showtime just to get Dexter? Do you really watch most of the 28 new shows they come out with each year, or do you watch less than 8 of them every year?
Conclusion:
If you are willing to wait a few months, and watch less than 8 shows a year from HBO, then HBO Now is not worth it for you. It’s definitely not worth it if you are looking for just the movies, as many of them are free on Netflix or Amazon Prime.
If you are not willing to wait for your show, or watch more than 8 shows a year, then HBO Now is worth it for you.
It really does come down to a personal decision regarding what you like and what you need. We subscribed to several premium networks, like HBO, before we cut the cord. In all honestly, we watched less than 5 shows a year from each network. So ask yourself, “How much HBO will you really watch?”
Let us know if HBO Now is worth it for you or if you will be sticking with your current system of getting your content.
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