HBO is unlocking its biggest trove of free programming ever — in a goodwill gesture as people look for a diversion during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The WarnerMedia-owned premium cabler is making almost 500 hours of programming available to stream for free (without ads) for a limited time on HBO Now and HBO Go services without a subscription, starting this Friday, April 3.
The list of free programming includes every episode of nine HBO series: “The Sopranos,” “Veep,” “Succession,” “Six Feet Under,” “The Wire,” “Ballers,” “Barry,” “Silicon Valley” and “True Blood.”
Also streaming for free are 20 Warner Bros. movies in HBO’s current catalog including “Pokémon Detective Pikachu,” “The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part” and “Crazy, Stupid, Love”; and 10 HBO documentaries and docuseries including “McMillion$” and “The Case Against Adnan Syed.”
Notably, however, HBO megahit “Game of Thrones” is absent from the free-streaming fiesta, as are recent hits including “Westworld,” “Big Little Lies,” “Euphoria” and “Chernobyl.” All of those series have seen big viewing gains in recent weeks, per WarnerMedia, which said streaming of HBO Now was up more than 40% from March 14-24 versus the previous four-week average. (Separately, HBO provides a limited selection of single episodes from its tentpole series to watch for free.)
The move by HBO to put such a huge amount of original content in front of the paywall — which it’s promoting with the hashtag #StayHomeBoxOffice — effectively serves as a major sampling strategy ahead of WarnerMedia’s scheduled launch of HBO Max in May. HBO Max will include everything on HBO, plus a host of originals, library titles and licensed content — for the same $14.99 monthly price.
All of the programming will be available to stream without a subscription starting April 3 by downloading the HBO Now or HBO Go apps (or by visiting hbonow.com or hbogo.com), but only in the United States. The content will also be made available for free via participating U.S. distribution partners’ platforms in the next several days, according to HBO.
HBO content available to stream without a subscription includes:
4. Six Feet Under (5 Seasons)
2. Arthur 2: On the Rocks
4. The Bridges of Madison County
10. The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part
13. Nancy Drew and The Hidden Staircase
2. The Case Against Adnan Syed
4. I Love You, Now Die: The Commonwealth v. Michelle Carter
5. The Inventor: Out for Blood in Silicon Valley
6. Jane Fonda in Five Acts
8. True Justice: Bryan Stevenson’s Fight for Equality
10. We Are the Dream: The Kids of the MLK Oakland Oratorical Fest
gta2158 on April 3rd, 2020 at 00:03 UTC »
notinthescript on April 2nd, 2020 at 22:46 UTC »
Anyone else have childhood memories from the 90s of getting HBO and the other expensive cable channels free for the weekend? Used to happen once a year or so.
BunyipPouch on April 2nd, 2020 at 19:52 UTC »
That's fucking cool.