For HBO, a la Carte Programming Is Still a Ways Off, Says Eric Kessler

Eric Kessler has worked at HBO for more than two decades in various capacities, overseeing everything from program licensing to digital strategy and marketing. He’s been in the business a long time, seen the pay TV programming evolution first hand and played a role in it as well. Put it this way, he’s the guy who came up with the slogan “It’s Not TV. It’s HBO,” which after a decade remains part of the cable TV vernacular. Today he’s got his hands full mapping out a viable digital strategy while remaining tethered to the cable TV cash cow and fending off new rivals like Netflix and Amazon that are mounting assaults on its business. As the first order of business at D: Dive Into Media interview, Kessler confirmed that HBO’s HBO Go App is now compatible with Apple’s AirPlay, and HBO subscribers who have been pining to stream HBO shows from their iOS devices to Apple TV can now do so. “Our long-term plan for Go is to be across all devices, and effective today, we will be enabling AirPlay,” Kessler said, adding that Apple TV support will follow “at some point.” And when that day comes, might it be accompanied by a la carte programming? At some point. But Kessler argued that the time for that is still quite a ways off. The economics simply aren’t there.