On Friday, April 10, the Office of Residential Life & Housing Services announced that all students with an on-campus housing contract now have access to an HBO GO account.
HBO GO is the online counterpart to the HBO television network that gives users access to a variety of HBO programming. This includes HBO original series, movies, sports, documentaries and comedy specials, as well as bonus features and behind-the-scenes extras. HBO GO can be viewed on a range of devices including computers and smart phones.
Over winter break, the University made the switch to a new cable TV provider, Campus Televideo. This gave students living on campus access to eleven HBO channels and seven other new networks.
“Access to HBO GO came with the Campus Televideo provider,” Residential Network Coordinator for University Information Technology Justin Turner said. It is HBO’s policy that anyone with an HBO subscription is given an HBO GO account—this includes anyone with a housing contract at UR.
“Eligible participants of the HBO GO service must be undergraduate students, enrolled in classes, with a housing contract,” Turner noted. Students living on campus during the academic year will have access to HBO GO during winter break and spring break. However, only students who live on campus over the summer will have access to their accounts during summer break.
While Campus Televideo has been the University’s cable provider since the end of December, it took some time to set up the HBO GO student accounts. “Infrastructure and integration assessments and testing needed to take place prior to the introduction of the HBO Go service on campus,” Turner explained.
In addition to bringing HBO GO to the students, the University’s new HBO subscription has resulted in a partnership with the HBO College program. Sophomore Nicholas Wachter has served as an HBO Campus Agent this semester to promote the network at UR.
“We plan different events on campus,” Wachter explained. “We planned a ‘Girls’ event with College Feminists earlier in the semester; we planned the big ‘Game of Thrones’ event two weeks ago.” On Wednesday, April 1, Wachter and his fellow Campus Agent, freshman Maria Sepulveda, organized an early screening of the ‘Game of Thrones’ Season Five Premiere, partnering with Campus Activities Board and UR Cinema Group.
Before the end of the semester, Wachter and Sepulveda will put on two additional events, including one on April 22 with Students for Liberty and College Democrats.
“We’re thinking about doing a ‘Last Week Tonight with John Oliver’ screening.” Wachter said. “It seems to have a pretty good following on campus. So we’re going to probably do that with a bunch of free stuff.”
Now that the HBO GO account access has been organized, it will remain a staple of on-campus housing for the foreseeable future. “Access to HBO GO … will continue as our partnership with Campus Televideo continues,” Turner said.
Rudd is a member of
the class of 2017.
