HBO Now

Watching popular TV shows such as The Walking Dead and Game of Thrones has become so easy online that millions are not only logging in to a plethora of new services, they’re also paying for it — including 2.2 million subscribers at Sling TV, parent Dish Network revealed for the first time Wednesday.

The milestone news came from Time Warner chief executive Jeff Bewkes today during an investors call for quarterly earnings. That’s up from about 800,000 U.S. subscribers at the end of 2015.

Here are three, starting with the fact that the field is dominated by four players: Netflix, Amazon, Hulu and YouTube, though Amazon is emerging as the real revenue-generating juggernaut among the lot. Sahil Patel notes that TV networks are also finding it worth their while to go directly to consumers now.

Sunday night’s “Battle of the Bastards” might have been the biggest event of Game of Thrones‘ sixth season, but for many fans it was something they had to read about on Twitter, as HBO’s streaming app HBO Now went down for a sizable number of viewers just as the episode became available to watch. The outage appears to have been caused by overwhelming demand on the app.

The gains in the standalone online service in the eight months since its launch last year didn’t seem to wow investors. Stifel analyst Benjamin Mogil said the 3.2% gain in HBO subscriber revenue came below the 4.7% Wall Street expected.

Richard Plepler raps “myopic” distributors, including Comcast, for failing to use HBO Now to drive broadband value.

The new live-streaming subscription service from HBO is part of a trend. Television channels are going rogue — dealing directly with cable customers. If this model is successful, expect major production companies (think Disney) to follow suit.

HBO Now, the online-only version of Time Warner Inc.’s premium pay TV channel, will join Google Play’s lineup, adding another distributor as it seeks to reach young viewers.

HBO CEO Richard Plepler says the decision to launch a streaming service was approached with the care of a politician mulling whether to launch a campaign. Plepler says so far, HBO Now subscriptions have exceeded expectations. He calls the service a “millennial missile” for its appeal to younger consumers.

New OTT service HBO Now gives you instant access to new TV episodes and movies, along with programs from months and years ago. People who don’t subscribe to cable TV are now able to watch hit shows such as Game of Thrones and Girls without “borrowing” parents’ accounts or turning to piracy sites. The curse? Having more video than you can ever find time to watch.

HBO and ESPN have long been cited as a chief reason people keep their pay TV bundles, amid a growing practice of “cord cutting.” But last month, Dish started making ESPN available as part of a $20-a-month online television package called Sling TV. Now, HBO will offer its movies and shows over the Internet for $15 a month. Here are some things to know before you rush out to cancel your cable service.

The Apple Watch stole the spotlight at the tech company’s media extravaganza Monday. But it was an announcement at the same event, made by HBO, that marks a true turning point. “This is the moment,” said James McQuivey, an analyst with Forrester Research. “We’ll look back and say this was when the game was fundamentally changed.”

Apple and HBO announced a deal today. Starting in early April, the $14.99 monthly service HBO Now will let users stream HBO movies and TV shows on iPads, iPhones and Apple TV — without having to sign up for a cable subscription at all. This is the first time that HBO is allowing for standalone service.

HBO will launch its standalone streaming service, called HBO Now, for $15 per month this spring with the premier of Game of Thrones. The company is also working with Apple to make Apple TV one of the launch partners for the service, sources say.