Content Is King - Game of Thrones and HBO Go

Recently, like so many of my other friends, I have started to watch the series Game of Thrones on HBO. Personally the series is very good and it is very enjoyable viewing. However as a professional, there is an equally fascinating story unfolding in how HBO is using this latest entry of what I consider high-quality content to reach out in new and interesting ways to their customers.

The service called HBO Go, allows HBO subscribers to watch the various offerings from the network on their mobile devices, tablets like the iPad 2, and over the internet. There are some nice touches to this service that makes it stand out for me:

• Service Provider Integration. I actually have a package subscription through Directv and I was honestly very pleasantly surprised that the HBO service asked for my credentials with Directv, validated that I was indeed a subscriber to HBO from that service, and allowed me to sign up for the HBO Go service. The ability to effectively leverage subscriptions from other providers so that I as a customer can be eligible is a total win.
• Good user experience. Intuitive navigation, easy-to-find visual elements, and a layout that pleasantly blends media and information services together is another really nice feature of the HBO Go service. Whether it be on the website, my iPad 2, or iPhone each experience is pleasant, easy and quite frankly very effective. Unlike many services, the HBO Go service tries to make things simple and easy for their customers. This is not to say that the experience is perfect, I had several designer colleagues make several comments to that point, but we all agree it is definitely more pleasant than any of us expected which is what matters.
• Content. This is the big one. Being able to access the content I want via the HBO Go service is definitely a big plus. Sadly while I would love to be able to watch it over Netflix streaming, that is not always possible especially with certain series that are brand new. So being able to access the content I want in several different ways that are the most convenient for me is the best.

There are several areas of concern that I have had over models of this nature from other services that still come to mind even with HBO. Firstly I want to be able to have a small set or even a unified viewing experience with all of my providers. This is the "holy grail" of viewing that offerings like Boxee bring to the consumer, which is the idea that I can take all of my various content and have it available to view through a single point. If I just have to look at my basic set of content such as YouTube, Netflix, iTunes, Amazon, Directv programming, etc. the fact that I find myself having to move from one experience to another for the different solutions is quite annoying. I love the content, but not being able to access the content effectively is just aggravating. Secondly, I find that having to be forced to visit a site for content that is not "recent" such as Game of Thrones or something of that nature is also tremendously frustrating. Unless the content is recent, there is no real need in my opinion for these providers to maintain their history for viewing. And here is why: they do absolutely NOTHING with that history. There are no new insights to be gained, no new content additions, no new upsell items, nothing. At this point it makes me wonder why sites even bother at times. Now not every site is this way, Comedy Central does an outstanding job of blending current content, new content, historical content not just of one type but with many others to create a truly engaging experience. Yet this is more of the exception than the rule. Thirdly there is another dimension of socially sharing that I want to be able to provide to my friends and colleagues about the content that I like. The most primitive approach is to share a link to the content via Twitter and Facebook. Yet some of the more sophisticated services like GetGlue are more closer to the mark where I can not only share what I like, but socialize with others whom I know about the shows as well. Lastly one of the most interesting features of what HBO offers is what I consider absolutely critical to accelerated growth of a unified service which is integration with different providers such as Directv, specifically speaking a service platform that can be used to create a more comprehensive and complete viewing capability. At some point in the future, I hope to see that the content providers offering access to their content via services that allow third-party companies to not only validate that they have a participating subscription to access their content, but to be able to access the content accordingly and share them where approprirate. For example, let's say I loved a certain episode of Game of Thrones and wanted to share that with a friend who. I would love the service to not only allow me to share that content link, but to also intelligently determine if a) my friend is all ready on a qualifying service plan such as HBO package on Directv and allow them access to view it or b) allow me to package that certain episode and "gift it" to my friend at a reasonable price (i.e. $1-$5 not $99+ per episode). These sorts of capabilities have all ready started but it would be exciting to see things of this nature mature more rapidly and see greater adoption.

I do understand the dilemma that companies like these face. Which is why I am excited to see HBO and others trying to new things to make their content more available and through such actions their brand more appealing to their customers. When there is an opportunity to provide top notch content that people are willing to pay a reasonable fee for, making that content readily available and conveniently accessible in ways that are not painful, it is important to recognize that opportunity and embrace it.