HBO Go was an authenticated

video-on-demand Video on demand (VOD) is a media distribution system that allows users to access videos, television shows and films digitally on request. These multimedia are accessed without a traditional video playback device and a typical static broadcasting ...

streaming service of the

pay television Pay television, also known as subscription television, premium television or, when referring to an individual service, a premium channel, refers to Subscription business model, subscription-based television services, usually provided by multichan ...

network

HBO Home Box Office (HBO) is an American pay television service, which is the flagship property of namesake parent-subsidiary Home Box Office, Inc., itself a unit owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. The overall Home Box Office business unit is based a ...

. The service originally allowed subscribers to access HBO's on-demand programming via the HBO website, mobile apps, and digital media players, among other devices, through their television providers.

History

HBO Go was the successor to HBO on

Broadband In telecommunications, broadband or high speed is the wide-bandwidth (signal processing), bandwidth data transmission that exploits signals at a wide spread of frequencies or several different simultaneous frequencies, and is used in fast Inter ...

, a service launched in January 2008 exclusively for

Time Warner Cable Time Warner Cable Enterprises LLC was an American cable television company. Before it was acquired by Charter Communications on May 18, 2016, it was ranked the second largest cable company in the United States by revenue behind only Comcast, o ...

(then a division of HBO parent company

Time Warner Warner Media, LLC ( doing business as WarnerMedia) was an American multinational mass media and entertainment conglomerate owned by AT&T. It was headquartered at the 30 Hudson Yards complex in New York City. It was established as Time Warne ...

) customers in Green Bay and

Milwaukee, Wisconsin Milwaukee is the List of cities in Wisconsin, most populous city in the U.S. state of Wisconsin. Located on the western shore of Lake Michigan, it is the List of United States cities by population, 31st-most populous city in the United States ...

. HBO on Broadband offered 400 hours of content, including feature films, HBO original movies, specials, and series, at no extra charge for subscribers. Access required both a subscription to HBO and Time Warner Cable's Roadrunner internet service. On February 18, 2010, HBO Go was launched, initially available through Verizon FiOS. Within the first week, the application was downloaded over one million times, and by June 2011, the number surpassed three million. At launch, HBO Go was only available on computers through the HBO website. iOS and Android applications were released on April 29, 2011. Over the following years, the service expanded to other providers, including AT&T U-verse,

Comcast Comcast Corporation, formerly known as Comcast Holdings,Before the AT&T Broadband, AT&T merger in 2001, the parent company was Comcast Holdings Corporation. Comcast Holdings Corporation now refers to a subsidiary of Comcast Corporation, not th ...

Cox Communications Cox Communications, Inc. (also known as Cox Cable and formerly Cox Broadcasting Corporation, Dimension Cable Services and Times-Mirror Cable), is an American digital cable television provider, telecommunications and home automation services comp ...

, Time Warner Cable,

DirecTV DirecTV, LLC is an American Multichannel television in the United States, multichannel video programming distributor based in El Segundo, California. Originally launched on June 17, 1994, its primary service is a digital Satellite television, s ...

Dish Network DISH Network L.L.C., often referred to as DISH, an abbreviation for Digital Sky Highway, is an American provider of satellite television and IPTV services and wholly owned subsidiary of EchoStar Corporation. The company was originally establ ...

, Suddenlink Communications, Charter Communications, and virtual

MVPD Multichannel television in the United States has been available since at least 1948. The United States is served by multichannel television through cable television systems, direct-broadcast satellite providers, and various other wireline video pr ...

services like AT&T TV Now, AT&T TV, and

Hulu Hulu (, ) is an American Subscription business model, subscription streaming media service owned by Disney Streaming, a subsidiary of the Disney Entertainment segment of the Walt Disney Company. It was launched on October 29, 2007, initially as ...

. In October 2011,

Roku Roku ( ) is a brand of consumer electronics that includes streaming players, smart TVs (and their operating systems), as well as a free TV streaming service. The brand is owned by Roku, Inc., an American company. As of 2024, Roku is the U ...

became the first television-connected device to support HBO Go, with later availability on

Apple TV Apple TV is a digital media player and a microconsole developed and marketed by Apple. It is a small piece of networking hardware that sends received media data such as video and audio to a TV or external display. Its media services include ...

Chromecast Chromecast is a discontinued line of digital media players developed by Google. The devices, designed as small dongles, can play Internet-streaming media, streamed audio-visual content on a high-definition television or home audio system. The u ...

PlayStation is a video gaming brand owned and produced by Sony Interactive Entertainment (SIE), a division of Japanese conglomerate Sony. Its flagship products consists of a series of home video game consoles produced under the brand; it also consists ...

Samsung Samsung Group (; stylised as SΛMSUNG) is a South Korean Multinational corporation, multinational manufacturing Conglomerate (company), conglomerate headquartered in the Samsung Town office complex in Seoul. The group consists of numerous a ...

Smart TVs, and

Xbox Xbox is a video gaming brand that consists of four main home video game console lines, as well as application software, applications (games), the streaming media, streaming service Xbox Cloud Gaming, and online services such as the Xbox networ ...

. Support for devices was subject to cable provider agreements. In January 2019, HBO Go dropped support for

PlayStation 3 The PlayStation 3 (PS3) is a home video game console developed and marketed by Sony Computer Entertainment (SCE). It is the successor to the PlayStation 2, and both are part of the PlayStation brand of consoles. The PS3 was first released on ...

Xbox 360 The Xbox 360 is a home video game console developed by Microsoft. As the successor to the Xbox (console), original Xbox, it is the second console in the Xbox#Consoles, Xbox series. It was officially unveiled on MTV on May 12, 2005, with detail ...

, and Samsung Smart TVs manufactured before 2013. On June 12, 2020, it was announced that HBO Go would be discontinued in the United States on July 31, 2020, in favor of HBO Max. HBO Now, a separate direct-to-consumer version of the HBO service, was also integrated into HBO Max at launch for most subscribers. Warner Bros. Discovery has continued to use the HBO Go branding for services in eight Southeast Asian markets. Although WarnerMedia initially planned to relaunch these services as HBO Max in 2022, the launch was postponed. The services, along with HBO Go in these markets, were rebranded into

Max Max or MAX may refer to: Animals * Max (American dog) (1983–2013), at one time purported to be the world's oldest living dog * Max (British dog), the first pet dog to win the PDSA Order of Merit (animal equivalent of the OBE) * Max (gorilla) ...

, incorporating Discovery+ content, on November 19, 2024. This effectively brought an end to the HBO Go branding overall after 14 years.

Content

HBO Go previously offered a selection of theatrically-released films from studios with distribution deals with HBO, including

20th Century Studios 20th Century Studios, Inc., formerly 20th Century Fox, is an American film studio, film production and Film distributor, distribution company owned by the Walt Disney Studios (division), Walt Disney Studios, the film studios division of the ...

Universal Pictures Universal City Studios LLC, doing business as Universal Pictures (also known as Universal Studios or simply Universal), is an American filmmaking, film production and film distribution, distribution company headquartered at the 10 Universal Ci ...

, and Warner Bros. Pictures, its sister company. A significant number of titles were added and removed from the service each month. HBO original series were available on a permanent basis, with new episodes typically becoming available for streaming at the time of their initial broadcast in the United States'

Eastern Time Zone The Eastern Time Zone (ET) is a time zone encompassing part or all of 23 U.S. states, states in the eastern part of the United States, parts of eastern Canada, and the state of Quintana Roo in Mexico. * Eastern Standard Time (EST) is five ...

on the linear HBO channel. Several past HBO series were not available on HBO Go, including '' Tales from the Crypt'', ''

Tenacious D Tenacious D is an American comedy rock duo formed in Los Angeles in 1994 by the actors Jack Black and Kyle Gass. Their music showcases Black's theatrical vocal delivery and Gass' acoustic guitar playing. Critics have described their fusion of ...

'', '' 1st & Ten'', ''

Da Ali G Show ''Da Ali G Show'' is a British satirical sketch comedy television series created by and starring British comedian and actor Sacha Baron Cohen. In the series, Baron Cohen plays three unorthodox journalists: faux-streetwise poseur Ali G, Kazakh ...

'', and '' The Ricky Gervais Show''. ''

The Larry Sanders Show ''The Larry Sanders Show'' is an American television sitcom set in the office and studio of a fictional late-night talk show. Created by Garry Shandling and Dennis Klein, the show ran for six seasons and List of The Larry Sanders Show episodes, ...

'' and '' Arliss'' were not added until 2016 and 2018, respectively. HBO Go did not provide live streams of HBO's linear channels, though programming was made available following its airing on the network.

Platforms

* Amazon Fire TV (December 16, 2014) * Android (April 29, 2011) *

Android TV Android TV is an operating system that runs on smart TVs and related entertainment devices including soundbars, set-top boxes, and digital media players. Developed by Google, it is a closed-source Android distribution. Android TV features a u ...

(February 18, 2010) *

iOS Ios, Io or Nio (, ; ; locally Nios, Νιός) is a Greek island in the Cyclades group in the Aegean Sea. Ios is a hilly island with cliffs down to the sea on most sides. It is situated halfway between Naxos and Santorini. It is about long an ...

(April 29, 2011) *

(June 19, 2013) * Google

(November 22, 2013) * LG

webOS webOS, also known as LG webOS, is a Linux kernel-based multitasking operating system for smart devices, such as smart TVs, that has also been used as a mobile operating system. Initially developed by Palm, Inc. (which was acquired by Hewlett ...

(March 20, 2019) * Mola (September 5, 2020) *

PlayStation 4 The PlayStation 4 (PS4) is a home video game console developed by Sony Interactive Entertainment. Announced as the successor to the PlayStation 3 in February 2013, it was launched on November 15, 2013, in North America, November 29, 2013, in ...

(March 3, 2015) *

streaming players (October 11, 2011) *

Smart TVs, manufactured 2013 or later (February 17, 2012) *

TiVo TiVo ( ) is a digital video recorder (DVR) developed and marketed by Xperi (previously by TiVo Corporation and TiVo Inc.) and introduced in 1999. TiVo provides an on-screen guide of scheduled broadcast programming television programs, whose fea ...

(February 16, 2016) *

Xbox One The Xbox One is a home video game console developed by Microsoft. Announced in May 2013, it is the successor to Xbox 360 and the third console in the Xbox#Consoles, Xbox series. It was first released in North America, parts of Europe, Austra ...

(November 20, 2014)

References

External links

* (redirect to HBO) {{HBO HBO HBO Go HBO Go Internet television channels Internet properties established in 2010 Internet properties disestablished in 2024 Audiovisual introductions in 2010 Defunct subscription services Defunct video on demand services Subscription video on demand services