Did you think you were getting away with something by saving $150 a year while using your friend’s HBO Go login instead of subscribing to HBO yourself? As it turns out, HBO not only doesn’t mind that you’re using someone else’s login to stream its pay TV content for free… it wants you to. In fact, according to the company’s chief executive, account sharing is a “terrific marketing vehicle for the next generation of viewers.”
“It presents the brand to more and more people and gives them an opportunity, hopefully, to become addicted to it,” HBO CEO Richard Plepler told BuzzFeed during a recent interview. He continued, “What we’re in the business of is building addicts, building video addicts,and the way we do that is exposing our product and our shows and our brand to more and more people.”
Regarding whether or not account sharing may be a problem that impacts HBO’s bottom line, Plepler doesn’t see it that way. “It’s not that we’re unmindful of it, it just has no impact on the business,” he said. Instead, the executive believes it will ultimately lead to more HBO subscriptions over time.
So there you have — time to stop pirating Game of Thrones and just borrow someone’s HBO Go login.
A video of the interview with HBO CEO Richard Plepler follows below.
