Report: Standalone HBO service arriving in April

A new report may give light to when HBO will launch its highly-anticipated standalone offering.

According to Fortune, the cable channel is targeting April for the release of its unbundled service, hoping to have it live in time for the premiere of hit series Game of Thrones (past seasons have premiered around the first week in April).

The report says HBO has also decided to partner with MLB Advanced Media to power its online offering, scrapping plans to create the streaming service on its own as it did with its HBO Go website and apps. MLB Advanced Media, a division of Major League Baseball, currently provides the back-end for many high profile streaming services including WatchESPN, the WWE Network and the league's own MLB.TV.

While it remains unclear what the switch to MLB Advanced Media will mean for the company's existing HBO Go service, HBO hopes the switch to outsourcing will help it deal with the large amounts of traffic put on its platform. Earlier this year, HBO Go crashed when too many viewers tried to watch the season finale of True Detective, leading to some embarrassing online backlash. According to Variety, HBO CTO Otto Berkes resigned Tuesday after news broke of the company switching to using MLB's platform as opposed to the one he was developing internally (a project dubbed "Maui").

In October, HBO confirmed it would launch a standalone version of its service next year.

It also remains to be seen what effects the switch to an outside partner will mean for the cost of HBO, which is already expected to be higher once its unbundled from traditional cable and satellite packages. HBO currently charges between $18-$20 monthly for its channel, though the company has yet to reveal the pricing for its untethered service.

Follow Eli Blumenthal on Twitter @eliblumenthal