The new season of Game of Thrones is almost here and HBO is making it easier for people to check it out. Starting Thursday, Hulu subscribers will be able to add HBO and Cinemax to their package for an additional monthly price.
Getting access will not come cheap. Adding HBO and Cinemax will come with monthly costs of $15 and $10, respectively. Both of those are more expensive than adding Showtime and Starz. If you pony up the extra money for HBO, you also get access to the HBO Now streaming app, as well as a robust on-demand library of HBO original series and films.
In May, Hulu launched its $40-per-month live-TV streaming option offering more than 50 channels. HBO and Cinemax were originally left off the list of available channels, but now that is a thing of the past. If you are subscribed to Hulu’s live-TV option, you will be able to watch HBO and Cinemax live if you add the channels to your subscription. The deal will also bring a few other channels to Hulu, including HBO2, HBO Family, HBO Latino, HBO Comedy, HBO Signature HD, HBO Zone, MoreMAX HD, ActionMAX HD, ThrillerMAX HD, MovieMAX HD, 5StarMAX HD, and OuterMAX HD.
The king of cable TV has been loosening the cord since launching its stand-alone streaming service HBO Now in April 2015. But, last year saw HBOCurb Your Enthusiasm playing nice with the rest of the streaming world. In 2016, HBO was made available as an add-on for PlayStation Vue, SlingTV, and DirecTV Now. There have also been recent reports of HBO potentially being included in Apple’s perpetually gestating live-TV service.
HBO’s competition has begun to challenge it for its crown of king of TV. Netflix was nearing 100 million worldwide subscribers in late April. HBO is still more popular, boasting upward of 134 million subscribers. But, what used to be a case of David versus Goliath has now turned into Hulk Hogan versus Andre the Giant thanks to Netflix’s subscriber base more than doubling between 2013-2016. HBO is also removing its programming from Amazon Prime Video in 2018, after licensing the content to the streaming service in 2014.
