HBO Go app coming to Apple TV by mid-year?

If you have an Apple TV set-top box attached to the TV in your living room, you may be getting a new entertainment option for the device by the middle of the year. Bloomberg reports that two people familiar with plans for Apple say that Apple and Time Warner Incorporated are negotiating to bring HBO Go to the Apple set-top box. The two sources refused to be named because the talks are private.

According to the sources, the timeframe for HBO Go to come to Apple TV is mid-2013. The Apple TV set-top box already has other streaming video applications such as Netflix and Hulu Plus available for video streaming. The Apple device can use more streaming video services to help it compete better with the PS3, Xbox 360, and cheaper set-top boxes from Roku.

If HBO Go does come to the Apple TV box by the middle of the year, you will need a subscription to HBO in order to use the app. The HBO Go app not only requires that you have a subscription to the HBO network on your cable or satellite company, but you must also be subscribing via participating cable company or satellite provider.

Apple continues to have a moderate success with the Apple TV set-top box selling more than 2 million units in the first quarter of its fiscal 2013 year. Apple's fiscal Q1 2013 ended in December 2012. Two million units sold in the first quarter of the fiscal year is a definite improvement since it took to full fiscal years for Apple to reach 7.8 million units sold.

[via Bloomberg]