Seriously. They’re changing the fuckin’ name again

    • themeatbridge
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      163 days ago

      Akshually, they were different front ends accessing essentially the same library of content. Go was included with your cable subscription, and Now was a streaming license you could purchase separately. They weren’t really different products, just different payment options.

      • @Vent@lemm.ee
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        63 days ago

        Eh, with that logic you could argue that all music streaming services are the same product with different front ends. Which, in a way, is kinda true…

        Go existed for a few years before Now was released, and they were separate websites/apps. I’d say they qualify as different products. I would be interested to know if they shared any backend tech though. Would probably save a pretty penny if they shared a CDN.

        • themeatbridge
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          3 days ago

          Yeah, the websites/apps were the different front ends. But you were still streaming HBO. The movies and shows were the same, and if you had one it would be redundant to get the other. Max was introduced as an expanded library for Now, but eventually replaced both and Go was discontinued.

          Streaming apps have their own catalogs and backends (although most of them license “all the music”).

      • If there was ever a time you wanted to watch content they had, you would find out I guess. I found out when my partner wanted to watch Game of Thrones newer series. We dont pay for cable so one of those apps we couldn’t access as it was specifically for users who had cable and paid for the HBO channels there. The other was one you could pay 14.99 a month or some shit like Netflix to have access to their content.

        Then I think they got bought or something and combined the 2 slowly into HBO Max… they wondered if just calling it Max was better, and probably found out it wasn’t so they changed it back.

      • @Vent@lemm.ee
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        73 days ago

        HBO Go required a cable subscription and Now didn’t. I think both of them only had shows produced by HBO, so it was a much smaller collection.

        Go was around for a few years as the only HBO streaming platform, but it came with your cable subscription, so you had to pay for a super expensive cable package to access it. That’s partly why Game of Thrones was the top pirated TV show ever, at least at the time.

        They eventually released Now, which to my understanding was just Go but you could pay for it directly without a cable package. Both Go and Now existed simultaneously for a few years.

        Eventually HBO Max was released, which is the platform we know today with a lot more than just HBO content. That one was renamed to just Max and is now being renamed again back to HBO Max because Max is a stupid name.