Q. I want to see the new HBO show, Sharp Objects, with Amy Adams because I love Amy Adams! I’ve seen everything she’s been in. But I don’t have HBO. What’s the easiest and cheapest way to get it? I don’t like to spend money. — Jennifer, Waco, Texas.
Jennifer, you are right. HBO on Sunday nights is running a new mini-series called Sharp Objects (pictured above), which stars Amy Adams as a newspaper reporter who returns to her hometown to investigate the murder of two children. The eight-episode show runs until this Sunday, August 26.
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HBO costs $15 a month, but is there a cheaper way to get the premium channel so you can get your Amy Adams fix?
Well, the cheapest way is to persuade someone who already has HBO to give you his or her user name and password. Yes, you could watch either the streaming edition of HBO, called HBO Now, or the pay TV version of the premium channel, called HBO Go, with someone’s user name and password.
Here’s how it works.
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If a friend with a cable or satellite subscription has HBO, that person can get a user name and password from his pay TV service that also permits him to watch HBO Go, which can be viewed via an app or the HBO web site. And that friendly individual can give you the user name and password so you can watch HBO Go as well.
The same goes for HBO Now, which is the channel’s standalone streaming service. Instead of paying $15 a month, you could get a HBO Now subscriber to give you her user name and password.
Now, you might be thinking there’s a catch, right?
Well, there is. While HBO has done little to discourage password sharing, some people believe it’s not ethical. After all, you are essentially cheating HBO out of $15 a month by getting it for free.
So, before ringing up that old friend who has HBO, you might want to ponder on that a bit.
If the ethical considerations are too much for you, there’s another cut-rate way to get the premium channel. DIRECTV Now, the live streaming service owned by AT&T, offers a $5-a-month version of HBO with its programming packages, which start at $40 a month.
That’s a good deal if you already have DIRECTV Now, or you are considering getting it. But $45 a month ($40 for the package; $5 for HBO) is not quite as attractive as free, is it?
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— Phillip Swann
