HBO announced today that its HBO Now streaming service, previously restricted to Apple products and subscribers to Cablevision’s Optimum Online, will soon be available on Android devices. Starting this summer, the standalone service will be open to customers on Google’s Play Store, including users of the company’s popular Chromecast streaming device. While the service still won’t be offered directly to consumers—that is, you’ll still need to get it through Apple, Google, or some other third party—the move to include Android will widely expand HBO Now’s potential market, a move that should finally cut down on the spreading national epidemic of jokes about people sharing their cousin’s passwords for HBO Go.
In fact, the new announcement puts HBO’s extensive library in sudden danger of being exposed to practically everybody (who’s from the United States, owns an Apple or Android device, and lives somewhere where Netflix hasn’t devoured all the internet). It remains to be seen what the premium network will do to hold on to its ironclad reputation for inconvenience in streaming. Powerful electric shocks, administered every time someone swears or sees a breast? A “for your own good” system of tiered content, forcing viewers to fight their way through John From Cincinnati before they‘ll be allowed to watch Deadwood? Arli$$? We’re not sure what they’ll settle on, but if anyone can make streaming great TV painful, rest assured that the fine people at HBO will find a way.