I have a feeling we'll find out that the cable companies need HBO more than HBO needs the cable companies.

The cord-cutting trend has barely just begun. Television five years from now will be a completely different landscape than it is today, and the change from now to then will make what has happened over the past five years look like barely a movement.

I was poking around when this was first announced, and if I remember correctly it seems like HBO only gets $4-$6 per cable subscriber. So even with the administrative overhead, the per-subscriber profits will almost certainly be significantly higher.