HBO's streaming plan whiffs with only 800,000 paying subscribers

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Helen Sloan/HBO

HBO Now, the company's cable-free streaming service, only has 800,000 paying subscribers.

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On Time Warner's fourth-quarter earnings call, HBO CEO Richard Plepler confirmed the number, which was short of analyst predictions of 1 to 2 million.

HBO Now launched in April, and lets you pay $15 per month to get HBO a la carte, no cable subscription required.

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Netflix says has around 75 million subscribers (as of January), and Hulu has previously reported 9 million subscribers (as of last April).

On the call, Time Warner tried to put the HBO Now subscriber growth in context, stressing that come content that is particularly suited for digital platforms, like Vice's daily news show and Jon Stewart's upcoming project, have not yet debuted.

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HBO Now is a big part of the company's bid to become "ecosystem agnostic," as Plepler puts it. That means that HBO will live wherever you are: your computer, phone, tablet, smart TV, Apple TV, Roku, and so on.

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