HBO Now has officially been announced at Apple's own event in San Francisco earlier today, with HBO CEO Richard Plepler getting on stage to announce an exclusive deal with Apple to launch the standalone streaming service.

The streaming service will be available a week before the premiere of Game of Thrones on April 12 and all customers that subscribe in April get a free month of the service.

Like Us on Facebook

It will be available on iPhone, iPad and Apple TV to start off with, although HBO is bound to bring the service to the web and other devices. This partnership with Apple does look extremely lucrative for Apple considering Game of Thrones is watched by millions of people worldwide.

"HBO Now will feature content from past, present and future," said Plepler.

This means all the backlogged catalogue from HBO, alongside a range of movies and all of the current TV shows.

What Plepler didn't disclose is the countries HBO Now will be available in at launch is whether HBO will impose strict geo-blocking tools to make sure pesky Europeans and Asians wait their turn for Game of Thrones.

Hopefully, HBO Now will be available in all countries for the same price, or at least available in some sense. It would be a shame if millions are unable to watch a season of Game of Thrones legally and have to resort to torrenting.

This is one of the first moves by a blockbuster cable channel to integrate with cord cutters. HBO is looking to attract up to 10 million customers in the U.S. that currently don't have a cable subscriptions.

TagsHBO Now, HBO, Game of Thrones, Internet TV, Ipad, iPhone, Apple TV