There are obvious advantages for both sides: HBO, which doesn’t have any experience selling directly to consumers, gets to work with a digital distributor that already has more than 400 million credit cards on file — and has a customer service set-up in place to support all of those customers. (People familiar with Apple and HBO say the two companies will both provide support for the service, in different areas; Apple, for instance, will handle queries about billing.)
Apple, meanwhile, gets an exclusive window to sell one of the best-known brands in media, and will get a boost from the media blitz HBO will pay for to promote the service, as well as the Apple hardware that will support it — iPhones, iPads and the Apple TV. The service will also work on Web browsers, via an HBO website.
via Apple’s HBO Now Deal Has Been in the Works for a Year | Re/code.