The home of Girls, Game of Thrones, and Boardwalk Empire has become part of another low-cost cable TV bundle. This time, it's Time Warner serving up HBO without the all the filler cable channels you'll never watch.
Time Warner cable is offering HBO and your local broadcast channels for $30 a month for 12 months. The price shoots up to $45 after that for three months, and then to $65 after 15 months. According to Time Warner, in addition to HBO you'll receive 20-plus local broadcast channels, including CSPAN, and three shopping channels including QVC.
The new "Starter TV Bundle" comes a month after Comcast offered a similar HBO deal. That bundle comes with local channels and broadband access for $40 to $50 a month for the first twelve months. Both offers are geared towards not only reversing the recent drop in cable TV subscribers, but also to woo cord-nevers who have yet to subscribe to any pay TV.
The bundles could also be targeted at the viewers who want HBO and HBO GO as an a-la-carte service. These types of subscriptions still seem like a long way off, but if low-cost premium bundles from Time Warner and Comcast do take off, the way we subscribe to pay TV could be poised for a dramatic shift.
