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'Game of Thrones' Streaming Demand Still a Challenge For HBO

Based on consumer complaints from last night, HBO is still struggling to handle demand for users watching "Game of Thrones" via the company's streaming apps, HBO Now and HBO Go. Phillip Swann at TV Predictions notes that numerous HBO Now customers flocked to social media last night to gripe about continued problems with the service during last night's particularly-grisly episode for "Game of Thrones." Many customers say they were unable to access the service whatsoever shortly after the latest episode of the popular show was made available at 9PM.

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HBO issued a statement on Twitter insisting that the lion's share of the streaming problems were resolved by around 10:12 PM for the $12 per month service.

Many customers on Twitter however continued to complain that they were unable to access the service well through the evening.

Down detector indicates that at one point, roughly 15,000 subscribers were voicing their complaints about the problems. While the problems were different, HBO Go (HBO's streaming apps made available to paying cable customers) also appears to have had problems during the show, particularly among customers of Cox Communications, who say they saw authentication problems when trying to plug in their credentials.

HBO has yet to provide a technical explanation for the outage.

»twitter.com/hbonow/statu ··· 59383553

Most recommended from 32 comments



Tomek
Premium Member
join:2002-01-30
Valley Stream, NY

11 recommendations

Tomek

Premium Member

Pirate Bay and Online Streaming

I bet those "cheaper" alternatives work better.....
moulder3
join:2007-05-21
Boston, MA

6 recommendations

moulder3

Member

cost

"...for the $12 per month service"

Unless something changed in the last few weeks, both HBO Now & HBO are $15/month

Kilroy
MVM
join:2002-11-21
Saint Paul, MN

4 recommendations

Kilroy

MVM

How about a little customer service

A billing credit would go a long way toward gaining customer goodwill. Saying it is broke and we're working on it and it works a little over an hour later doesn't cut it. People are paying for the service and if it isn't working they shouldn't be paying full price.

I'm too cheap to pay and will wait until NetFlix gets the DVDs next year.

tshirt
Premium Member
join:2004-07-11
Snohomish, WA

4 recommendations

tshirt

Premium Member

Interresting that in the age of streaming apps...

... cord cutters and subscribers alike all gather in front of the 'TV' to watch the newest episode right at 9pm just like they did for Bonanza 50 plus years ago and Milton Berle in the generation before.
You might think a scheduled broadcast would be more efficient, usable, and certain to run on time for the first play.

Candew
join:2005-09-23
N. America

3 recommendations

Candew

Member

HBO Announces Name Change

In response to it's critics and to better reflect the quality of the services provided to its subscribers, HBO has announced today that HBO GO and HBO Now will be re-branded as "HBO Stop" and "HBO Later"

sporkme
drop the crantini and move it, sister
MVM
join:2000-07-01
Morristown, NJ

2 recommendations

sporkme

MVM

Worth $15?

I went legit with HBO this year to see if my experience as a real paying customer would be better. So far it's been a mixed bag:

+ GoT is generally available when it airs (pirates have to wait up to an hour)
+ Video quality is comparable to a decent rip from usenet/torrents
- On the Roku, the app is really ghetto. No "fancy" features like Netflix (large poster art, easy access to a series, suggestions, no video preview while scrubbing) and really barebones looking.
- Watchlist doesn't understand series
- Two shows that I regularly watch are delayed (Bill Maher, next day, John Oliver 2 or 3 a.m.). Of note, these are both available sooner via alternate means.
- Roku app had a widely reported bug for months that somehow rendered the "OK" button inoperable until you exited the app.
- $15 (more than Netflix)

Supposedly MLB provides the streaming infrastructure, so the two things that really irk me about this "premium" service (delays of two shows) is that if anyone could figure out how to "live stream" certain shows, it seems MLB would be the expert in that area.

I suspect that when/if an RFO comes out on this, it's tied not to the streaming, but the authentication. Two rokus both got "kicked out" with a 503 error and then continued to fall flat until around 10.