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There was an article - I'm at work so I can't look for torrenting related articles - where while most of the HBO guys say, flat out, they won't go after downloaders because it's working out well for them; one guy does point out that they have to wonder, if the sold the show for 99 cents, and some fractional percentage of those downloaders then bought the show for 99 cents, could they have afforded more CGI? One more scene with the dragons?

And I found it interesting because it was totally, utterly, said from a pie-in-the-sky, "wouldn't it be nice if" viewpoint one reserves for sentiments like "what would I do if I won the powerball?"

...and totally not with even a hint of being a utterly realistic thing that the guys holding this discussion had nearly 100% of the ability to actually make a reality if they wanted to. They totally and wholly have the ability to sell the show, right now, via streaming, via any number of outlets that will convert some unknown percentage of those downloaders into paying customers, a base from which they are currently generating zero revenue and would require no actual cost to attempt such, since they're already filming the show and broadcasting it . I mean, there might be reason why it's not in their interests to do so, I suppose - but like zero percentage of that even entered the conversation.

I would happily pay $1 for an episode of GoT. I'd pay $2, even. I do not know how much revenue that HBO gets from a subscription, broken down on a hypothetical per-episode basis, but I am reasonably confident that it is less then $1 or $2.

I think TV is really going to be awesome in 5 or 7 years, when they finally start rolling it this way, when more stuff gets crowdfunded like Veronica Mars, when the line between broadcast, TV, and web programming is pretty much gone.

 KingCracker wrote:
Im REALLY hoping that eventually HBO realizes that they should allow HBOGo to be paid for and used like NetFlix. Hell, even if its just HBO streamed to my device Id be totally happy with that. Paying $10-$20 a month on its own would be worth it,

The damning thing about this I am sure that they'd make more per subscription with this model then they get from cable operators. I mean, I don't know the numbers in their contracts, so I can't say this with surety - but just as I can look at income of 1 billion dollars and say "you're probably going to owe some tax on that"; I can look at the $9 or $10 that cable operators charge to add it and think, HBO would be getting a larger cut if they went directly. It's got to be killing them.

However, there is a very good (short) article here about why it's not likely to happen soon. More here on that.

My feeling is they are eventually going to start partnering with Amazon or someone like them that will handle the things discussed there.