Have you "cut the cord" on EXPENSIVE cable TV? Why or why not? A PBS guide

[Xithras]

82. No, that's incorrect. You must have cable or sat to use it.

There's been a long running campaign to get them to offer it this way, but as I said elsewhere, they've made it clear that they won't be doing so any time soon. The cable companies are still HBO's bread and butter, making up virtually all of their income, and the companies have made it clear that they will retaliate harshly against HBO if they try it. The premium content channels like HBO, Cinemax, and Showtime are one of the few reasons that people have to subscribe to cable nowadays, and the cable companies know they'll be screwed if people can get that content without them.

Plus, there's the fact that HBO is part of the Time Warner megacorp. They aren't going to piss off their corporate masters.

I have HBO-GO. When you activate your device, you have to provide your account information for your cable company account, and they verify it before allowing the device to view anything. I once had my Dish Network account put on hold for a month while my wife and I were overseas, and my HBO-GO account was automatically deactivated within 5 minutes of hanging up the phone. It's something they police very closely.