Forget using your roommate’s cousin’s HBO GO password. By this time next year, you should be able to subscribe to a new standalone streaming service that HBO chief executive Richard Plepler said was an effort to reach some 10 million Americans who have broadband service but don’t subscribe to a cable plan.

Speaking at parent company Time Warner’s (TWX) investor day, Plepler was light on details, such as price, but promised to work with current partners like cable companies as they near launch sometime in 2015.

Those cable companies must be wondering if it’s time to change their business model and place a greater focus on broadband. While so-called “cord-cutting,” the practice of forgoing cable and consuming all video content over the web, is contained to a minority, last week’s ESPN/NBA streaming news coupled with HBO’s announcement today has to give cable giants pause.

Also keeping a close eye on developments like this out of HBO are its natural competitors like Netflix (NFLX), Hulu and Amazon (AMZN). Almost exactly one year ago, Netflix declared subscriber count victory, reporting close to 30 million U.S. subscribers. While HBO doesn’t release subscriber statistics, Bloomberg had cited media research firm SNL Kagan, which reported 28.7 million HBO subscribers this time last year.

“HBO has incredible content,” notes Yahoo Finance’s Jeff Macke. “They’ve sat kind of idly by and watched Netflix create their own version of HBO, in some way surpass them. It’s about time that HBO started thinking this way.”

Time Warner's stock was up on the news even as the broader market continues to struggle.

Stick with Yahoo Finance as more details are sure to trickle out in the coming months.

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