ROKU, HBO GO

Please add Roku to your streaming devices for HBO Go

This has me totally flabergasted....we are a high paying (aren't we all) Xfinity customer that uses comcast for phone, internet and cable tv..including paying for HBO. I am shocked to find out that I cannot stream hbo go through our new Roku streaming box even though we pay for HBO and can stream just fine via a pc. Comcast doesn't even have to do anything here, just say ok for its subscribers to be able to use the Roku hbogo app.

This is shocking and very disappointing. I'll give it a few months but basically I don't see the point in paying comcast for hbo if I can't watch it on my devices....

Not only do they block the Roku, but Smart TV's as well. Pretty lame when I pay them for HBO content. Now I have to catch up on Game of Thrones on my computer monitor? Why the frak did I add HBO? To watch Game of Thrones - ON THE BIG SCREEN. Your HBO On Demand service ONLY HAS THE LATEST SEASON. Why are you restricting which monitor I can view the content I paid for on? Absolutely amazing how petty this is

http://forums.comcast.com/t5/XfinityTV-Website/ROKU-HBO-GO/td-p/1100271/

I just found out about this pathetic problem. I was shocked that someone who pays for HBO cannot access the content we subscribe to on all of the most convenient devices we have..

I'm sure there is increasing pressure on comcast to come around but if they continue to play this game they will lose some subscribers. If they lose subscribers it will be highly profitable ones (like my family) who use comcast for a variety of services.

I know comcast is somehow trying to 'defend its turf' in some way by blocking paid subscribers from accessing the content they pay for, but as with all of these things it will not work. If comcast wants to be my content delivery channel they are going to have to let me get to my content where and when I want to, not where and when they want to.

Because HBO Go offers access to a lot more HBO programming than is available through Comcast (and/or Xfinity) On Demand.  For instance, I recently got interested in the HBO series "Boardwalk".  Currently season 3 just completed and it is the only season available through On Demand.  However, HBO GO allows access to all episodes from all three seasons.

Enjoy this needless and pitiful exercise of power while you can, Comcast.  There will come a time in the not-so-distant future when content providers like HBO and many others will get thier heads out of thier collective rears and realize that the internet has made legacy content distribution channels obsolete, and the economics associated with them obsolete as well.  They will finally come to realize that they can make more profit by eliminating "middlemen" like you whose only modern role is to sit as the artifical gatekeeper of access to thier content.  This is the same lesson that Tesla Motors is teaching the retail automotive industry.   When that day comes, regardless of what new bells and whistles you have added to your services, I and many like me will not forget the way we have been treated in circumstances like this Roku/Smart TV issue.  Folks like us will not be Comcast customers for one second longer than we have to be.  The point in time at which we can make that glorious choice is hopefully nearly upon us. Our patience will be rewarded with freedom from you, and your arrogance will be punished with a Blockbusteresque corporate death spiral as your customers flee your service offering like it were a modern commercial plague.  

I do not see these guys going away but do see them relying more on bandwidth and less on content.

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@Maz wrote:

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@cohenfive wrote:

I do not see these guys going away but do see them relying more on bandwidth and less on content.

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They may not go away, but I could confidently say that very vast majority of people in my neighboorhood are anxiously waiting for the day FIOS is avaiable and will then switch with blinding swiftness.

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Personally, I'm hoping for Google's internet--but will take any viable alternative to Comcast for internet as soon as one becomes available.

if you come up with alternates let us know...here in the bay area they have the fastest internet which is what is really holding us as a customer...

+1 to HBO GO on ROKU - additional content and viewing options are very important to me.  My setup contains 2 TiVo HD's with cable cards (no On Demand there) and a Comcast cable box in our 7 year old's room.  We're not going to watch our HBO on demand in our 7 year old's room.

Between this, rising cost for existing loyal subscribers, and inability for customer service to successfully get me on a lower cost plan, I'm seriously looking at alternatives.

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@cohenfive wrote:

if you come up with alternates let us know...here in the bay area they have the fastest internet which is what is really holding us as a customer...

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You can always switch to another television provider and keep Comcast for the internet, that is what I have done. Rather than pay the monthly rental fee, I purchased my own modem, which has now "paid itself off."  I have Dish for tv, Comast for internet until a viable alternative comes to my town.

Let me point something out...

I watch a ton of television and I've been playing for all premium channels for a while.  I have showtime, HBO, Starz, Encore, Cinemax, etc. 

Xfinity's television service is (at the moment) complete garbage.  Trying to sort through my available on demand content is a choir.  It's a painful experience that is completely outdated.  It's slow responsive and it's muddled by endless menus of nonsense.  If I want to see what's on Showtime, for instance... I have to go to On Demand->Premium Channels->Showtime->HD->Movies->A-G... then back out and look at H-P... etc.  Then if I want to see what's available for HBO it's the same mess of menus.  On Demand->Premium Channels->HBO->HD->Movies... etc

Some of this pain is alleviated by the iOS app... which is actually very FAR more intutiive and helpful.  I can very quickly go to On Demand -> movies and add filters for HD and "Free" ... it will show a list of every single movie available to me.  I appreciate this.  It would be nice to have a more intuitive menu on the actual box, though.  The new X1 platform does indeed sound promising ( http://www.comcast.com/X1 ), but at the moment it's not available in my area.  I've also read some poor initial reviews of it.  But it sounds promising.  It gives you that intutive "netflixy" iOS experience on your box.   Until that becomes available, I find myself avoiding Xfinity more and more in favor of streaming services.

I was shocked to log into HBO Go online to find that it had FAR FAR more content than what is currently available through Xfinity On Demand.  While Xfinity On Demand might have a couple dozen movies and a handful of TV shows (often not even the full seasons), HBO On Demand seems to give you access to literally every movie HBO currently has the rights to as well as their entire catalog of previous and current series.  If you want to watch all of Deadwood, you can.  If you want to watch all of "The Wire", you can.  HBO GO is vastly superior to the HBO "on demand" content Xfinity makes available.

I recently bought a Roku specifically for the purpose of streaming that HBO Go content (which I have access to from my iPhone, iPad and computer) easily to my television.  I was SHOCKED to find out this isn't possible.  SHOCKED and annoyed, honestly.  That's freakin ridiculous.  It didn't give me an option to sign in to my HBO Go account via the Roku, because Xfinity/Comcast wasn't listed as a provider.  What's the reasoning behind that?  I'm paying Xfinity for HBO.  Why would they limit my access to HBO?

I did, however, notice that Time Warner was an option.  Luckily, I have a grandmother in Los Angeles with a Time Warner account who also pays for HBO and never uses her HBO Go account.  I decided to link my Roku to her HBO Go account.  Yay... I found a freakin loophole on how to access the content I'm already paying for.

The experience has encouraged me to find other "loopholes" and other outlets for finding content.  I'm more than happy to continue paying for my Xfinity service/content if they are willing to adapt.  A device like a ROku is powerful, because it lets me search for content over a variety of services I pay for at once... netflix, amazon prime, hbo go, spotify, hulu plus, etc.  If there was an Xfinity TV channel available on Roku, i'd gladly add that as well... I'd continue ignorantly paying Xfinity just so I could have a plethora of easily accessible content in one location.   But if Xfinity is unwilling to adapt quickly and continues to keep their outdated service as-is, it will likely make me cancel my Xfinity TV subscription all together (as many others have been doing in the broadband age) and access the content elsewhere.