Showtime Anytime HDMI mirroring

I wish someone could explain digital rights in a way that actually makes sense to most human beings, but that's not the point.

I have HBO and Showtime from my cable provider. Very useful. I have the HBO and Showtime Apps on my iPad and iPhone. They both work perfectly, though I've never used them outside of my home WiFi network, so who knows if it's very useful.

Of course, I have HBO and Showtime on my Apple TV. With no discernible logic, I cannot use those Apps on my Apple TV, because....who knows. My major cable company is not included on the list of approved providers for the Apple TV apps.

But it gets weirder. My iPhone and iPad HBO and Showtime apps have more seasons of programs than my cable company's on demand system. For example, if I want to watch all 4 seasons of Boardwalk Empire, I can do it on HBO to go, but not on my cable's On Demand system. That's just ludicrous.

Now HBO allows me to do Airplay streaming through Apple TV, so this is good. Showtime, illogically does not allow AirPlay. This is well known.

TL;DR

So here's my question: I know there are no workarounds to AirPlay blocking, but I was considering buying a Lightning to HDMI cable for my iPad, hoping that the hardware mirroring will work perfectly. It's a $50 proposition, so I don't want to get it if the app blocks Airplay as well as HDMI mirroring. I couldn't find an answer in searching the internet. People seem to conflate Airplay with HDMI mirroring, so I can't dig out an answer.

I just wish my Apple TV could get the content, because it's so much faster than Cable's On Demand system, but a temporary fix is better than nothing.