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HBO Launches TV Show Downloads

by Will Safer on January 22, 2008 at 03:58 PM

HBO


HBO is sticking a tentative toe into the content downloading waters today, with Time Warner Cable and Roadrunner customers in the Green Bay and Milwaukee, Wisc., area being the first to benefit (if that's the right word) from a free add-on to HBO On Demand that will allow users to download movies and original programming straight to their computers.

Why only Wisconsin? Maybe with temperatures hovering around zero degrees they figure all those folks will be staying warm indoors -- and looking for more small-screen entertainment.

Besides geography, there seem to be lots of limits on the service, which will include some top series from the "not TV" premium cable network, such as 'Entourage' and 'The Sopranos,' plus 400 other titles.

A proprietary computer application will be required so you won't be able to use Windows Media Player or RealPlayer for playback, and this will only work on computers with Windows XP or Vista, at that. No Macintosh support was announced nor will the service be available for mobile devices -- at least not yet.

Downloaded content will expire after four weeks.

Is this the first foray before a larger launch or just a one-time test? Only time will tell. If you're one of the lucky Wisconsin customers, let Switched.com know if you're going to use the service and if you like it.

(Note: both HBO and Switched.com have the same corporate parent Time Warner.)

From BetaNews.

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