iWorld
HBO partners Apple to launch standalone streaming service
MUMBAI: Home Box Office will launch its standalone premium streaming service called HBO Now in April, bringing the new product to audiences in time for the fifth season of Game of Thrones. HBO has joined hands with Apple, wherein for the first time an HBO subscription will be made available directly to Apple customers through HBO Now.
HBO Now provides instant access to HBO’s programming. Watch every episode of every season of the best series programming, more of the biggest and latest Hollywood hit movies, original HBO Films, groundbreaking documentaries, sports, and comedy and music specials.
Apple will give viewers the ability to enjoy HBO programming via HBO Now. Upon launch, customers can subscribe using the HBO Now app on their iPhone, iPad or iPod touch or directly on Apple TV for instant access. Users can purchase HBO Now directly in-app for $14.99 a month. Upon registering, subscribers will also be able to watch at HBONow.com. HBO will offer a 30 day introductory free trial period to new HBO Now customers who sign up through Apple in April.
HBO continues to be in discussions with its existing network of distributors and new digital partners to offer HBO Now. At launch, HBO Now will be available on iOS devices and on PCs.
“HBO Now is the next phase of innovation at HBO. With this new partnership, a natural evolution for the network, we have access to millions of Apple customers who are used to getting their favorite apps immediately. Now, they can do the same with an HBO subscription,” said HBO chairman and CEO Richard Plepler.
“HBO Now offers a new generation of HBO fans many of the best TV programs in the world without a cable or satellite subscription. Now, with the same simplicity as buying an app, customers can subscribe to HBO Now and instantly start viewing their favorite HBO programs as they air—this is huge,” added Apple senior vice president of Internet software and services Eddy Cue.
Similar to HBO Go, HBO Now will offer more than 2,000 titles online. This includes series like Game of Thrones, True Detective, Silicon Valley, Girls, Veep andThe Leftovers, as well as classics like The Sopranos, Sex and the City, True Blood, The Wire and Deadwood.
Upcoming original programs like Westworld, the drama series starring Anthony Hopkins, Ed Harris and Evan Rachel Wood; The Brink, the dark comedy series starring Jack Black and Tim Robbins; the new season of the Emmy-winning True Detective, with Vince Vaughn, Colin Farrell and Rachel McAdams; and HBO Films’ Bessie, starring Queen Latifah, will become available on HBO Now as they air on HBO.
In addition, HBO Now will showcase Last Week Tonight with John Oliver, named “best of 2014” on many critics’ lists; Vice, the Emmy-winning, cutting-edge news magazine series hosted by Shane Smith; HBO Sports documentaries, series and World Championship Boxing events; and documentary programming like Going Clear: Scientology and the Prison of Belief, The Jinx: The Life and Deaths of Robert Durst and the Oscar winning, Citizenfour.
iWorld
Telcos power past Rs 1 lakh crore in December quarter
Sector revenues surge year on year, with Reliance Jio in the lead and government levies swelling alongside
NEW DELHI: India’s telecom giants have punched through a psychological barrier. In the December 2025 quarter, their combined gross revenue vaulted past Rs 1 lakh crore, underlining the sector’s pricing muscle and data-driven momentum.
According to the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), cumulative gross revenue of telecom service providers rose to Rs 1.02 lakh crore in the quarter, up from Rs 99,828 crore in September and Rs 96,390 crore a year earlier. The climb is steady. The signal is clear.
Adjusted gross revenue (AGR) — the metric that matters most because it fattens both company coffers and government levies — grew 8.13 per cent year on year to Rs 84,270 crore, up from Rs 77,934 crore in the same quarter last year. AGR includes revenue from telecom services as well as licence fees and spectrum usage charges paid to the exchequer. When telcos earn more, so does the state.
Access service providers such as Reliance Jio, Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea accounted for 84.54 per cent of total AGR in the December quarter, reaffirming the dominance of the mobile heavyweights in an increasingly consolidated market.
Data published earlier by TRAI for the September 2025 quarter showed Reliance Jio topping the revenue charts with Rs 31,767.11 crore, ahead of its rivals. The December numbers suggest the pecking order is unlikely to have shifted dramatically.
For a sector once mired in bruising price wars and AGR litigation, the rebound is striking. Tariff repairs, premium data plans and relentless subscriber upgrades are doing the heavy lifting. Revenues are rising, government collections are firming and balance-sheets are breathing easier.
India’s telecom story, long defined by survival, is now tilting towards scale and cash. The quarter’s message: the industry is no longer merely connected — it is charging ahead.
