HBO’s standalone streaming service – you know, the one that people demanded for years and that the company finally announced in October – is likely to launch in April of 2015.
And it looks like it may be outsourced.
According to a report from Fortune, HBO has just killed its project “Maui”, which was working to build the new offering in-house.
From Fortune:
Rather than build the technology internally, the company has struck a deal to use external technology offering from MLB Advanced, according to sources familiar with the situation. MLB Advanced already provides white-label streaming technology for clients like WWE Network, but HBO will likely be its largest client. It’s unclear what this means for the future of HBO Go, the company’s existing streaming service for cable subscribers.
According to an internal memo, the decision was a tough one.
“This decision was not made lightly, and was based on an assessment of risk and scope of the product needed to meet HBO¹s short term business needs for April 2015. This was not a judgment of the team¹s work quality or deliverables but rather a bet that an existing streaming service could deliver the needed product faster and at lower risk than Maui,” said HBO SVPs Mark Thomas and Drew Angeloff.
Apparently, this is a pretty big slap in the face to the company’s CTO Otto Berkes, who HBO, according to sources, felt “couldn’t pull it off.”
The launch of the new service, which will let people pay to stream HBO content without a cable subscription, is set to coincide with the premiere of Game of Thrones.
Image via HBO