HBO is Using Animals to Push HBO Now

HBO’s new animated series, Animals, will premiere earlier on HBO Now.

HBO has been pushing its way into the streaming market. First with HBO Go, a free addition for current subscribers, and then with HBO Now, a separate service aimed at cord-cutters without current subscribers. HBO Now is made to compete with Netflix and Amazon, and so it needs some other way to break into that market while keeping a relatively level playing field with its regular customers.

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So far, HBO hasn’t done all that much to differentiate HBO Now from its other service. The streaming platform will offer something new when Jon Stewart’s mysterious project comes to light, though there hasn’t been any word on that recently. At the very least, however, HBO is going to offer HBO Now users an early crack at their original series.

Earlier today, HBO tweeted that a new episode of their animated series produced by the Duplass brothers, would be available to view early for those with HBO Now.

It’s not a big move on HBO’s part, and likely won’t do much to annoy their regular user base. It’s basically just a small bonus for being an HBO Now subscriber. It is, however, indicative of the kind of line that HBO is going to draw between its somewhat fractured user bases.

Next: Dig into the preview for the next episode of Girls.

It’s going to be interesting to see how HBO handles the two services in the future and if it will continue to prioritize HBO Now. This could eventually cause normal subscribers to move over, assuming they aren’t already locked into a HBO account from their cable providers.