HBO Online No Good

I was so excited when I saw the headline "HBO Putting Shows Online, at No Additional Charge." Then I read the article:

The free service will allow access to about 400 hours of movies and original programming each month. It will be made available only to people already subscribing to HBO, and it will be marketed and delivered through cable operators.

“There are a lot of people, particularly young people, who are watching TV through the PC. We wanted to create a product for them,” said Eric Kessler, a co-president of HBO.

Most major television networks already make much of their programming available free on the Internet. But as a channel with 29 million subscribers, HBO cannot afford to bypass its cable partners.

That really sucks. If HBO wants to reduce downloads of their shows through other channels, they need to address the needs of people who want to pay HBO for their shows but not buy digital cable and 500 other channels.