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 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.
The move by HBO to put such a huge amount of original content in front of the paywall 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). The content will also be made available for free via participating distribution partners’ platforms in the next several days, according to HBO.
(Excerpt) Read more in: Variety