The head man at Time Warner — the parent company of HBO — says the pay-cable channel is open to the idea of offering its programming as a broadband-only service. But B&C reports that Time Warner Inc. Chairman and CEO Jeff Bewkes "would be reluctant to offer the premium channel to customers without an existing pay TV connection."

"Bewkes, at the Goldman Sachs Communacopia conference Wednesday, said offering its HBO GO online service as a bundle with a cable high-speed data service would create a product ‘you can’t refuse,’ adding that such an offering could give the premium channel an inroad into the 70 million households that subscribe to pay TV but not HBO, not just the 5 million to 6 million that don’t have a pay TV service," B&C reports.

Bewkes reportedly said: "Where do you think the likely next subscriber is? Is it the 70 million homes that have bought 200 channels of stuff and they haven’t bought HBO? Or is it the 5 or 10 million that didn’t buy either HBO or that? It’s pretty obvious; it’s the 70 million homes. We’re working more on that. If a way to get them is through a broadband offering, our distributors would be properly interested in that. They haven’t yet."

The piece notes that HBO has about 30 million subscribers, making it the leading premium network.