“What is this compulsion to have people over at your house and serve them food and talk to them?” – Larry David, Curb Your Enthusiasm

This is the best news I’ve heard in a long time! HBO Co-president Eric Kessler has announced that HBO will soon be launching HBO Go, a streaming TV and movie service to bring the channel to portable devices including the iPad. And, even better, the service will be available at no additional cost to subscribers.

Since HBO has a deal for online rights to movies from Universal, Fox and Warner Bros this will make a library of movies available on demand. HBO also produces some of the best shows on television in past few years, shows like True Blood, The Sopranos, Curb Your Enthusiasm and Entourage.

There has been talk of a rivalry between Netflix and HBO and this will only add fuel to fire. Netflix right now has exclusive online rights for movies from Paramount, Lions Gate Entertainment and MGM as well as all Starz movies and programming like Spartacus: Blood and Sand and Party Down.

This is mostly good news for iPad owners as more and more programming comes to the device and more companies compete to bring media to iPads and other devices. The down side is most of these services will mean an additional monthly subscription fee and those fees are starting to add up.

So kudos for HBO coming to the iPad at no additional fee!