In a nutshell, HBO will launch its standalone streaming service, HBO Now, in April. Foxtel to feel the pain? HBO signs a deal with Apple to make Game of Thrones available via HBO Now by April 13. That's big news for US consumers, a vocal segment of whom are tired of paying a fuller cable bill of up to $US100 ($130) just so they can watch Game of Thrones. That service, which will sell for $US14.99 a month, with a month free trial, will be exclusively tied to the Apple TV box for its first three months. After that, presumably, it expands to other streaming devices in the market such as the Chromecast and the Roku, PlayStation 3 and 4 and Xbox 360 and Xbox One.

Apple has secured that deal, and pushed the price of its Apple TV box down to $A109 (or $US69 in the US, and £59 in the UK) in a move clearly intended to challenge the emergence of its cheaper, platform agnostic rivals. It's also big news for Australians, who have a robust history of helping themselves to the best the world has to offer. For example, although Netflix is still opening its doors in Australia, it is widely accepted that a large number of Australians have been using virtual private network (VPN) services to access the US Netflix for several years. Barring a change to how such services handle customer transactions, or how Australia filters the internet, there is little reason to doubt that many Australian-based US Netflix subscribers will find HBO Now an equally attractive offering. In broader terms, though, an Australian HBO Now is unlikely.

HBO may fully control some of its most powerful assets, such as Game of Thrones, but the international rights for much of its older American library – programs such as The Sopranos, Six Feet Under, Sex and the City and Entourage – are controlled by other studios. That said, the Apple-HBO deal does, however, hint at a larger trend globally, in which cable companies – the incumbent one-stop-shop for content sellers – are being being replaced by a new generation of devices which funnel content via apps, effectively allowing single operators an equal seat at the table. The US network CBS has already launched a standalone streaming service of its programming. The ABC-owned Disney has standalone streaming services, as do a raft of studios and smaller channels. And the technology company Sling has recently launched a Sling TV service in the US which streams linear channels such as ESPN, CNN, AMC, IFC and Disney. Sling TV's price point is persuasive – just $US20 a month – and its channel lineup, while not broad, does deliver some of TV's best off-Broadway hits, such as AMC's The Walking Dead, Better Call Saul and Mad Men and IFC's Portlandia. The future is more such services, not less.

What that means for Australia is still difficult to divine. A similar service, Fetch TV, has offered a smaller multi-channel service at a more modest price for some years, but has failed to dent the market leader Foxtel. A bigger challenge are the three new streaming services, Stan*, Presto and Netflix. And while it may sound attractive to think that big-ticket sport (the AFL, the NFL, the cricket) and big-ticket entertainment, such as US film studios or the bigger production house libraries, could funnel their content into standalone businesses, the back-of-house costs can be equally prohibitive. For most, a tandem free-to-air and pay TV play remains smart business. But the clock is ticking. Apple knows it. And so does HBO. And both, smartly, have made their move, sealed in a union which may reset the way TV business is done for decades to come. *Stan is jointly owned by Fairfax Media, the publisher of this website, and the Nine Network.