For a while HBO has been rumored to be building its own in-house streaming platform, separate from HBO Go, to serve up its long-awaited standalone streaming service. According to an internal memo obtained by Fortune, that in-house platform, code-named Project Maui, was shelved recently. Instead, HBO will partner with Major League Baseball's MLB Advanced Media platform to provide streaming services for HBO content (don't that beat all).
Also according to the memo, HBO’s standalone service will launch in April, along with the Game of Thrones premier.
And, according to yet another internal memo obtained by Variety today, HBO’s Chief Technology Officer Otto Berkes resigned late Tuesday afternoon.
Anonymous sources speaking to Fortune say that the scrapping of project Maui was due to a growing distrust of Berkes. Berkes joined HBO in 2012 from Microsoft and built a Seattle office with 55 engineers, many of whom he worked with at Microsoft. The office’s separation from New York-based employees and its cost to the company apparently created divisions within HBO. Fortune wrote:
According to sources, Berkes had known about a “memory leak” [on HBO Go] for nine months but decided it was a “non-issue.” That leak eventually led to the HBO Go outages. Internally, some accused Berkes of using the outages as a way to ask for more money to invest in his Seattle engineering team. He got the investment, but HBO executives have not been pleased with what he’s delivered. Berkes delayed product launches and was unable to deliver on upgrades. “If you look at what [HBO Go] is today versus two years ago, he hasn’t really done anything,” one source said.
In the memo that HBO executives sent to employees explaining the decision to move to a third-party streaming service provider, they wrote that parts of the work done on Project Maui may be rolled into HBO Go. "Maui’s timeframe caused us to make concessions both in scope and culture,” the memo read. "We look forward to returning to teams defining scope, and consumer experiences without forced top down scheduling.”
In the internal letter from Berkes announcing his resignation, he wrote “Recently HBO’s management decided to partner with a third party to assist HBO in bringing our OTT service to market in 2015.”
"This is a change in direction from what I planned with HBO and the approach will not utilize my overall capabilities," he wrote. "Therefore, I feel that this is the right time for me to move on from HBO so that I am able to fully pursue my passion building world-class technology teams, products and businesses.”
HBO's popular programming has driven a lot of interest in a standalone streaming service that people can buy without a TV subscription. But the company has reportedly faced some pushback from pay-TV providers who don't want to have to cater to cord-cutters, and whom HBO still depends on for a lot of its revenue. Recent reports have suggested that the company has quite a contractual tightrope to walk to get its streaming service off the ground.
Also according to the memo, HBO’s standalone service will launch in April, along with the Game of Thrones premier.
And, according to yet another internal memo obtained by Variety today, HBO’s Chief Technology Officer Otto Berkes resigned late Tuesday afternoon.
Anonymous sources speaking to Fortune say that the scrapping of project Maui was due to a growing distrust of Berkes. Berkes joined HBO in 2012 from Microsoft and built a Seattle office with 55 engineers, many of whom he worked with at Microsoft. The office’s separation from New York-based employees and its cost to the company apparently created divisions within HBO. Fortune wrote:
According to sources, Berkes had known about a “memory leak” [on HBO Go] for nine months but decided it was a “non-issue.” That leak eventually led to the HBO Go outages. Internally, some accused Berkes of using the outages as a way to ask for more money to invest in his Seattle engineering team. He got the investment, but HBO executives have not been pleased with what he’s delivered. Berkes delayed product launches and was unable to deliver on upgrades. “If you look at what [HBO Go] is today versus two years ago, he hasn’t really done anything,” one source said.
In the memo that HBO executives sent to employees explaining the decision to move to a third-party streaming service provider, they wrote that parts of the work done on Project Maui may be rolled into HBO Go. "Maui’s timeframe caused us to make concessions both in scope and culture,” the memo read. "We look forward to returning to teams defining scope, and consumer experiences without forced top down scheduling.”
In the internal letter from Berkes announcing his resignation, he wrote “Recently HBO’s management decided to partner with a third party to assist HBO in bringing our OTT service to market in 2015.”
"This is a change in direction from what I planned with HBO and the approach will not utilize my overall capabilities," he wrote. "Therefore, I feel that this is the right time for me to move on from HBO so that I am able to fully pursue my passion building world-class technology teams, products and businesses.”
HBO's popular programming has driven a lot of interest in a standalone streaming service that people can buy without a TV subscription. But the company has reportedly faced some pushback from pay-TV providers who don't want to have to cater to cord-cutters, and whom HBO still depends on for a lot of its revenue. Recent reports have suggested that the company has quite a contractual tightrope to walk to get its streaming service off the ground.
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