In the case of Locast, part of the Aereo ruling was that it was a for profit service. Locast is able to do this because they are not charging the end user.
The data we were using didn't change more than a few times a week. So we would generate JSON files using Python and the Google Sheets API. Since we never had to hit the Google Sheets API in any live fashion, it was basically small cached data files.
This was fine even as we approached >100K monthly uniques.
We moved more the data to our CMS as traffic grew for ease of use, but we could have used this method basically indefinitely.
My last company was a grocery coupon app. We used to go to Apple Store's around the Bay Area (especially on iPhone Launch Day) and pay people $1 to install and try our app.
AT&T heavily subsidizes HBO for TV and telecom subscribers. $5 with DTV Now or free with AT&T Unlimited plan.
They are definitely playing long game if they’re willing to lose 2.5 million Dish subscribers. HBO makes about $8 per sub from cable companies, so $20m per month. They are probably trying to push it up to their OTT price ($15).
People can still subscribe to HBO Now. Mildly annoying to get it from a separate interface or you have bad internet, but at least there are options.
Most of the services were around 30 second delays, with the best being around 15 seconds and the worst around 60 seconds.
At this point there needs to be a technology shift if its going to get any better than about 10 seconds.
It even varies by device. iOS defaults to 10 second chunks, but you can reliably get it down to 6 seconds. You generally need to store at least 2 chunks or you'll have bad buffering.
Yeh, I asked them this question. While you lose HBO for life, you do get a choice of HBO, Showtime, Starz,Amazon Music Unlimited, or Pandora Premium instead.
The only reason that you wouldn't want to update is if you signed up for their Unlimited Plan when they were giving $25 off DIRECTV NOW, DIRECTV, or AT&T U-Verse.
In that case, you wouldn't get AT&T WatchTV, but you would get a much more comprehensive DIRECTV NOW package + HBO for $10/mo.
For those who cut the cord, some things that may come out of this:
1. AT&T announced they were launching an entertainment only live streaming service for $15 (or free to AT&T subscribers) which will compete with Philo.
2. They will continue to give away free or cheap HBO to AT&T or DIRECTV NOW customers
3. Comcast will more aggressively bid for FOX which means either Disney or Comcast will become the majority stakeholder for Hulu
https://thestreamable.com/matchmaker