HBO going after 80M US homes with no HBO with stand-alone streaming service
NEW YORK — Next year HBO is cutting the cord and selling its popular streaming video service HBO Go as a stand-alone product, as more Americans choose to watch the Web, not the TV. Viewers longing to see “Game of Thrones,” “True Detective” and “Veep” will no longer have to pay big bucks for cable and satellite contracts. So, is this the end of pay-TV as we know it?
“HBO and ESPN are the two main reasons why people have cable and satellite TV,” says Forrester analyst James McQuivey. “The whole industry has eyed them for years nervous that one day they would decide to do exactly what (HBO) said they’ll do in 2015. We don’t know until we see pricing and packaging how rapidly this will force a change in the way pay TV operators work, but it will definitely force a change.”
Millions already have canceled pay-TV subscriptions — up to 10 million U.S. households are currently broadband-only. And about 45 percent of Americans stream television shows at least once a month, according to research firm eMarketer. That number is expected to increase to 53 percent or 175 million people by 2018, it says.
Kurds prove resilient in fight against militants in Syria town
MURSITPINAR, Turkey — Intensified U.S.-led airstrikes and a determined Kurdish military force on the ground appear to have had some success in halting advances by Islamic State fighters on a strategic Kurdish town near Syria’s border with Turkey — at least for now.
On Wednesday, the Kurdish militiamen were fighting ferocious street battles with the Sunni extremists in Kobani and making advances on some fronts, hours after the U.S.-led coalition stepped up its aerial campaign.
‘Inherent Resolve’ — US military operation in Syria and Iraq gets an official name
WASHINGTON — It’s less punchy than previous nicknames for U.S. conflicts in the Middle East — remember Operation Desert Storm and its thunderous attacks against Saddam Hussein? — but the Pentagon has finally named its fight against Islamic State militants in Iraq and Syria: Operation Inherent Resolve.
The naming, which took weeks of deliberation behind closed doors at U.S. Central Command and at the Pentagon, is part of an effort to organize a long-term military campaign.
But that name, Inherent Resolve.
Inherently bland.
It’s less awe-inspiring than other names chosen for U.S. military operations in Iraq over the past two decades — Desert Shield, Desert Storm and Desert Fox, for example. It appears to convey the no-drama approach that marks President Barack Obama’s style.
2 men cleared in 1985 killing after NY prosecutors say confessions were false
NEW YORK — Cleared of the murder that had put him behind bars for almost 30 years, David McCallum sobbed and thought of the man who wasn’t there with him.
Co-defendant Willie Stuckey’s conviction also had just been thrown out after Brooklyn District Attorney Kenneth Thompson concluded the two confessed falsely as teenagers to kidnapping and killing a stranger and taking a joyride in his car. But Stuckey wasn’t in court Wednesday to be freed. He died in prison in 2001.
“After 29 years, it’s a bittersweet moment because I’m walking out alone,” McCallum, 45, said as he left court to hugs from relatives and applause from supporters.
By wire sources