By Scott Maguire
Fitchburg State has acquired a new perk for on-campus resident students. The University set up a deal where all resident students now have access to the on demand movie and TV streaming service, HBO Go. Something that normally costs ten dollars a month with an active cable subscription (something resident students would not have) is free. HBO Go itself is much like Amazon Instant Streaming and Netflix where people have access to hundreds of shows and movies to watch.
Students have opinions about now having this service sophomore, Amber Fisette explained, “Very few college campuses have HBO Go, so when I heard the news about us getting it on campus, I was ecstatic. There are so many awesome television series that I could watch on campus. A few highlights would be True Detective, Game of Thrones, and the hilarious remarks of John Oliver.” Binge watching TV shows is a popular pastime for college students, first with Netflix and now HBO Go. As Fisette said, “The amount of shows to binge watch is immense. So my first thought was that now I have twice the amount of Netflix to binge watch.”
Students are already paying thousands of dollars to live on campus so anything, especially something given for free, generally adds value to the student package. Fisette claimed that HBO Go on campus brought wonderful value to the students, “We are able to attend a fantastic university that not only has great academics but also nice perks for residential students. I constantly wonder what it is going to be like when I reach the end of my Netflix Watch List and run out of good shows to watch. Now, HBO Go is where I will turn. As I said earlier, HBO Go isn’t a residential perk on every campus. I think only six or so colleges have it, and now we do. THAT is amazing.”
HBO GO has many popular TV shows such as Game of Thrones, The Sopranos, True Blood, Girls, and Boardwalk Empire among many others, the shows are varied to fit the interests of many. The more options that are available the more successful the program will be with students.
“I definitely want to watch True Detective. Matthew McConaughey and Woody Harrelson produced the first series, and from the trailers and the first episode that I already watched, it looks amazing. Okay, it is amazing. I also really want to start watching Game of Thrones. I keep hearing everybody talking about it but I still don’t even really know what it is about. I can’t wait to see what all the hype is about,” Fisette explained of her excitement of this new TV related perk on the Fitchburg State campus.
Fisette also shared the general opinion of the school about the news, “I think that the student body is quite happy about this addition for residents on campus. I also think this was a huge surprise to everyone. I personally had never heard anything about this happening until I got the email a couple days ago. Not everyone has Netflix, so with HBO GO, they are able to catch up on the hyped up Game of Thrones, and actually watch some solid quality television.” She went on to say; “ Normally I would not have enough money to pay for HBO GO, since I already pay for Netflix. Adding more subscriptions becomes too much for a broke college student.”
She also mentioned that for in the future, “I would love to see more things like this added to the list of advantages of being a student here. Something else that would be a good idea would be to include other services like Netflix. Although that could be a stretch considering we just got HBO GO, but anything like this is good for the school. It shows people that the school is trying to give you the most for your money and definitely gives Fitchburg State the edge over some other schools.”