HBO Announces Plans To Rival Netflix With Stand-Alone Streaming Service

(CBS/AP) - Premium cable channel HBO plans to offer a stand-alone version of its popular video-streaming service in 2015.

At an investor meeting at parent Time Warner Inc. on Wednesday CEO Richard Plepler said the move will target the 80 million homes in the U.S. that do not have HBO but may want access to its content. The move comes as Americans increasingly prefer to stream movies and TV shows digitally on an a la carte basis rather than flip through cable channels.

HBO has been offering its streaming HBO Go service to HBO subscribers as well as some Internet subscribers who pay extra for the streaming service only.

No details about pricing were given.

Los Gatos-based Netflix reportedly boasts more than 50 million streaming subscribers.