Quickflix signs streaming deal with HBO

news Leading Australian online movie rental and streaming company Quickflix has announced a content licensing agreement with top US television company, Home Box Office, Inc (HBO). However, new shows won’t hit Quickflix’s archive until 12 to 18 months after they first show in the US.

The deal marks the debut of HBO television programming availability through Quickflix streaming, providing more than 500 hours of content. This comprises television series, documentaries, films and stand-up comedy, including hit franchises like Entourage, The Sopranos, Sex and the City, The Wire (pictured above) and award-winning mini-series such as Band of Brothers and The Pacific.

HBO is a wholly owned subsidiary of Time Warner Inc, a global leader in media and entertainment with business in television networks, filmed entertainment and publishing. HBO, started in 1972, currently broadcasts in at least 151 countries, and had a base of 28.2 million subscribers in the US as of March 2011. The HBO pay service includes seven multiplex channels and a video on demand service, HBO On Demand.

Quickflix subscribers in Australia will soon enjoy access to HBO’s content, using an expanding range of internet connected TVs and devices. Stephen Langford, Quickflix founder and executive chairman clarified that under the Quickflix subscription service, HBO content would be available 12 to 18 months after the first run, covering all HBO’s content. “We’ll be launching a complementary pay per view service for latest movies and TVs spanning most of the major studios later this quarter,” Langford added.

The new tie-up comes just a couple of months after Quickflix launched its new instant movie streaming service, WatchNow, enabling PC and Mac owners in Australia with entry level broadband speeds to stream unlimited movies from Hollywood’s top studios. Prior to that Quickflix had launched streaming to Sony’s range of connected Bravia TVs, Blu-ray players, home theatre systems and VAIO computer range.

In other ventures expanding Quickflix subscription options, Sony Computer Entertainment Australia had announced the launch of the Quickflix streaming service for PlayStation 3 (PS3) in December 2011. Shortly after the New Year, Quickflix had revealed a 24 per cent increase in subscribers during the last quarter of 2011. In July 2011, the company had announced the raising of $4.675 million in funding through private investors, as part of its plans to expand online operations.

Image credit: HBO’s The Wire

22 COMMENTS

  1. “Quickflix subscription service, HBO content would be available 12 to 18 months after the first run, covering all HBO’s content.”

    And this is what makes it pretty well much useless! *sigh*

    I got excited for nothing! :(

    • I kind of feel the same way, although Quickflix pointed out to me that have a substantial back catalogue is still good – not everyone has seen The Wire.

        • in this day and age with movies going from theatres to DVD in a few score days this is an insulting joke. i know rights holders love their (excessive) lock on their content but this is just effing ridiculous.if this is what they think ‘changing business model to reflect current state of play’ represents (and thereby put away the pirates and grow their own business) all i can say is it is an epic fail and the pirates will not slow down a whit for any of those series. by the time that worst case 18 months rolls around anyone who had intended to see those series already will and many more will no longer have the inclination to.

          is that really what Quickflix and HBO want?

  2. While it sucks to wait over a year to see stuff, building a bitchin’ back catalog of stuff from HBO will be fantastic. Hopefully it’s a true back catalog, of everything HBO has made like documentaries, comedy specials and the not so popular series that were never shown or released on DVD here.

    • Yes I guess if it is a true back catalogue it’ll be awesome.

      But still to wait so long for new stuff. Doesn’t do anything to help combat people getting it by other means.

    • Clint: You are spot on.
      I would pay to watch TV shows…
      AS LONG as the TV show is released in America I can then watch it a week later online. But since they don’t do that, I will still be downloading my TV shows.

      • Released a day later (or even at the same time :-) would be the preferred option. Too many spoilers from so many places (twitter, facebook fan pages, G+ and the actors that have accounts in these places) after an episode has shown makes it very hard to stay interest in a show (you know what is going to happen).

        World wide, same time releases is what is needed to fix piracy. Rupert and Co. just don’t seem to get that their way of controlling what viewers watch when they should watch it is not applicable in this day and age.

        Damn old fuddy duddies running the world, blind in realising why the world is zipping by them at a rapid rate of knots. Maybe it is time for these old media folk to just move into their closest retirement village if their zimmer can’t keep up with the freight train.

    • So those in America should not be pirating then as this excuse does not apply to them?

      • We’re talking about Australia here.

        And the advantage of a service like quickflix is you watch it when you want.

        And this is the biggest reason people pirate.

  3. Good news, well done Quickflix. i am happy quickflix customer sofar.

    Look forward to pay per view service with a hope of low cost (compared to sony and bigpond) and longer time to watch the movie. it will be a superhit with those combinations.

  4. Why even bother with Quickflix? Get a VPN or DNS proxy (like unblock US) then sign up to Netflix for $8 a month

    • Because this is against the Netflix terms and conditions, and puts you in the same group as the ‘pirates’!

      I’m not going to PAY to aquire content illegally.

      Until we have content on a comparable timeframe and price parity with the US, I’ll continue heading straight for thepiratebay.

      I tried to buy some Philip Glass CDs from Amazon (about $9USD each). Added 6 to my basket, (I was signed in), then went to Checkout. “Sorry, these products are not available in your region”, or words to that effect when I tried to pay. So I go to Bigpond music. They had 2 of the 6 CDs I was looking at, one was $16AU, the other was $21. At JB HiFi, the same CDs are $26 and $32 respectively.

      And they wonder why we torrent.

      • It’s difficult to *advocate* illicit downloading, but with examples like yours it’s very easy to explain it.

        If the content companies want us falling in line, they need to stop all this geoblocking and collusion, and offer an effective legal alternative. It really is as simple as that.

  5. Go on Quickflix for doing a deal to get HBO but 12 to 18 months behind? Sigh. Why would people wait?

  6. If i was the CEO of quickflix and HBO came and said yeah no problem u can show the shows 12 months later. i would have told them to stick it. what is the point in waiting that long for the shows u really want to watch?

  7. I’ve been hanging for Quickflix on the PS3, and then they come out with possibly the worst collection of movies i’ve seen. My mum has a better selection of movies than Quickflix on the PS3 does and I’m not joking! Come on Quickfilx, get it together, I want to stream new releases not have them posted to me. Looks like I’ll wait until Quickflix catches up with Sony, Foxtel on Demand via Xbox and Apple TV’s offering…if ever.

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