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Facebook wants you to pay to watch HBO shows on its own app

Facebook is in talks to sell TV subscription services, to be watched on its "Watch" hub, Recode reports.

Jennifer Bisset Former Senior Editor / Culture
Jennifer Bisset was a senior editor for CNET. She covered film and TV news and reviews. The movie that inspired her to want a career in film is Lost in Translation. She won Best New Journalist in 2019 at the Australian IT Journalism Awards.
Expertise Film and TV Credentials
  • Best New Journalist 2019 Australian IT Journalism Awards
Jennifer Bisset
game-of-thrones-s7e5-2
Macall B. Polay/HBO

We spend so much time on Facebook , why not watch our Game of Thrones on there too.

Facebook is reportedly in talks with HBO and other pay TV channels including Showtime and Starz to sell their services through Facebook, according to Recode.

Video content would likely be accessed through Facebook's mobile app and the "Watch" video-on-demand hub.

If the deal is settled, the new option would arrive in the first half of next year, according to Recode, citing "industry sources."

Over the past three years, Facebook has been aggressively pushing into video. It's come up with original programs to compete with the likes of YouTube, many of them pulling in numbers Facebook was happy to release. (Jada Pinkett Smith's talk program Red Table Talk is the biggest show with 4.3 million viewers.)

But you don't have to pay to watch those. This would be Facebook's first premium programming.

A Facebook spokesperson declined to comment.