![\"Tencent's](\"http:\/\/j469.ascjclass.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/22\/2014\/12\/113800890.jpg\")
<\/a>Tencent’s Digital Media Marketing Department manager gives speech regarding the collaboration between HBO and Tencen Video (v.qq.com)<\/p><\/div>\n
Web-TV service, such as Netflix and Hulu Plus, is growing rapidly, which has forced pay-television network HBO to release its own online-streaming services and step further into Asian market: to distribute TV dramas and movies through the Chinese Internet giant\u2019s online video.<\/p>\n
Globally, different from Netflix that directly launches its service in foreign countries, HBO licenses its programming to Tencent, a famous investment holding company whose services include social network, mass media, e-commerce and online games.<\/p>\n
Its new deal with Tencent hasn\u2019t disclosed the financial details or broadcast schedules. According to Wall Street Journal<\/a>, HBO\u2019s international business accounts for about one-quarter of the company\u2019s $4.9 billion in annual revenue. And last year, it added 10 million users overseas, which is twice as many as HBO and Cinemas added domestically in the past decade.<\/p>\n Nonetheless, customers outside of the U.S. pay much less money than Americans for HBO\u2019s programs, which, in other words, the company doesn\u2019t generate a lot of revenue from licensing its programming.<\/p>\n Besides, the Chinese government censorship and local competitors \u2013 Youku Tudou Inc. and some internet-pirate sites \u2013 still make people feel uncertain about HBO\u2019s future in Chinese market. Bloomberg<\/a> reporter Xin Zhou said that a pay-to-view channel run by China\u2019s state broadcaster CCTV aired a cut version of \u201cGame of Thrones.\u201d To maintain the program quality and satisfy the viewers without provoking the government seem to require a longtime negotiation among different parties.<\/p>\n HBO Go: An online-streaming site that is only available for cable subscribers in the U.S.<\/p><\/div>\n Thus, as HBO is shifting its sights on international markets, it\u2019s also ready to create a broadband-only service, which further disrupts the pay-television industry.<\/p>\n In the U.S., since it has to split the revenue with cable distributors, HBO finds it\u2019s getting tougher to profit and dominate the market with current business model. Netflix charges subscribers $7.99 to $11.99 per month, while HBO charges $13 to $15 per month. Although Netflix\u2019s total subscribers were not even half them of HBO, its subscriber revenue inched past that of HBO in the second quarter of 2014: $1.146 billion compared to $1.141 billion for HBO.<\/p>\n Also, HBO didn\u2019t plan to offer its online services to non-pay-television subscribers until Time Warner Inc. CEO Jeffrey Bewkes<\/a> announced on Oct 16, 2014 that HBO will offer its own online-streaming in 2015. This announcement immediately led TWX stock to soar 8.7 percent.<\/p>\n<\/a>