HBO launching in Spain with Vodafone

HBO has struck a deal with Vodafone in Spain for the launch of its planned streaming video-on-demand service in the country, to be called HBO España.

HBO said its Spanish service will launch with an extensive catalogue of premium content including current series such as Game of Thrones, True Detective, Veep, Silicon Valley and a variety of HBO movies, documentaries and other series.

HBO España will also offer new series from other TV series providers. Full details of the programming offer and launch date for the service will be published in due course, according to HBO.

Vodafone customers will be able to access HBO España from their Vodafone TV service and also via mobile devices, tablets and computers.

Vodafone, which owns the former Ono cable network in Spain, has over one million TV customers in total in the country. The operator recently launched a new 4K UHD set-top aimed at its own ADSL and VDSL base in Spain, which includes access to online services including Netflix.

HBO’s plan to launch a Spanish service by the end of this year was first reported by Bloomberg in January, with the premium broadcaster taking a decision to retain rights to its content and run down existing distribution deals with other channels in the country.

CEO Richard Plepler told Bloomberg at the time that HBO would choose to launch a standalone SVoD service or continue with its strategy of licensing content to third parties “depending upon where we think we can make most money”.

Premium SVOD service HBO Now is already available in multiple countries and a Spanish-language version of the service began to roll out in Latin America at the end of last year, beginning with Colombia.

In Europe, HBO currently provides a streaming-only service in the Nordic region.