Comcast announced on its blog on Friday that it will indeed authenticate HBO GO for use by subscribers with both Xbox and the Xbox Live service. When Xbox initially announced two weeks ago that it was enabling Comcast's Xfinity TV, MLB.TV and HBO GO apps, Comcast (along with Time Warner Cable and Bright House) subscribers were unable to access HBO GO, because the cable operators weren't authenticating it. For Comcast subscribers, that meant the only HBO programs they could view on their Xbox was via the Xfinity app, which offers far less content. The move set off a vocal protest by Comcast/HBO/Xbox subscribers, including a much-noticed Facebook post by Netflix CEO Reed Hastings.

At a larger level, Comcast's reversal (which was attributed to the resolution of unrelated business issues between it and HBO) is another shift in the balance of power between cable operators and cable networks that online video is causing. Traditionally, cable networks have only been available via pay-TV operators' set-top boxes, and have been subject to their technology constraints (e.g. small VOD shelf space, limited ad insertion capability, etc.). Technical control over the viewer's experience has been an important source of leverage for pay-TV operators and has precluded cable networks from having a direct relationship with subscribers (more on this in last Friday's podcast)

But now, with broadband enabling direct delivery of high-quality video from cable networks to their audiences (including via apps), pay-TV operators have been put in the uncomfortable position of trying to retain their control even as devices are empowering viewers. No network has positioned itself better to take advantage of the shifting dynamics than HBO with its HBO GO app. While still adhering to the basic rules of authentication - that a viewer must be a pay-TV and HBO subscriber to access its content - HBO GO has strengthened HBO's direct relationship with its viewers enormously.

This in turn is opening up interesting options for HBO in its future negotiations and also in its ability to offer its service (or a subset) directly to viewers sometime down the road - a strategic priority I provocatively wrote about a year ago. Still, as HBO co-president Eric Kessler emphasized in my interview with him last November, it's not something the network is considering right now. Rather, HBO is wisely taking things one step at a time, developing loyalty and increasing its own technology capabilities, while the market plays itself out.

And that's why Comcast's decision to authenticate HBO GO on Xbox is a clear win for HBO. By gaining ever-greater viewer access, HBO only enhances its longer-term options. The Xbox authentication likely paves the way for other devices not currently authenticated (Roku, etc.) to also be authenticated, as well as other pay-TV operators' authenticating HBO GO, all of which creates a positive cycle of subscriber access.

For a long while I've said that broadband's most significant attribute is that it lets content providers deliver video directly to their intended audiences. While there are still intermediary challenges like authentication and bandwidth caps, over the long-term, broadband is giving content providers like HBO significant new opportunities to assert themselves, and shift the balance of power with their traditional pay-TV distributors.