HBO has recently caught a lot of flak for not allowing their programming to be distributed online. You can’t buy it on iTunes, you can’t get it anywhere. The one exception is HBO GO, which is the online counterpart to the cable service. The catch is that you get them both together. You can’t just subscribe to HBO GO, like you would subscribe to a service like Netflix. Even after fans mounted a campaign asking HBO to let them take their money, the television station wouldn’t relent.
Fast forward a few weeks to Aaron Sorkin’s new television series premiering on HBO. The next day, it shows up on HBO’s YouTube channel for free. Definitely a step in the right direction. Nice to know they may be listening after all.
Watch Newsroom Episode 1, Season 1 on YouTube.
While I’m genuinely shocked that even one episode is available so soon after initial broadcast I’ll be blown away if ever HBO allows another episode to be so publicly available. I think allowing the tech-savvy non HBO subscribers to see the pilot which so clearly targets the ‘plugged in’ demographic is a pretty genius marketing ploy. Enough slack to hook some new subsribers and nothing more.
Sorry for errors or moments of idiocy; sent from my phone late at night.