Discovery wants to stream new shows to its cable subscribers, for a fee

Following the success of services like HBO Go, Discovery Communications boss John Hendricks says that he wants to make his networks’ newest programming available online to paying cable subscribers. Just one hitch, though: he wants to charge “a very small subscription fee” for it, reports Reuters. While it’s by no means an official announcement, Hendricks floats a price of “$6 to $8” in a new memoir (by comparison, HBO Go is free for subscribers). Hendricks said that the service won’t be ready for another two to five years, but the infrastructure is already under development.

Discovery Communications owns networks like TLC, the Science Channel, and Animal Planet, and already makes a lot of its programming available on streaming services like Netflix and Amazon. The difference with the new plan would be freshness: Discovery currently only offers previous seasons of content to its online partners. The company’s own service would stream newer content, “from three months ago let’s say, that is available directly through Discovery if you’re a cable subscriber,” said Hendricks.

In other Discovery news, Engadget notes that the company just released three new apps for Windows Phone 8, letting you stream clips and even a few full-length episodes from the Discovery Channel, Animal Planet, and TLC. The Windows Phone apps so far don’t have the second screen functionality that you get with the iOS versions, but they are free to download.