Comment by I-M-S

6 hours ago

“The goal is to become HBO faster than HBO can become us.” - Ted Sarandos in 2013

Seems Netflix won that race.

14 comments

I-M-S

Reply
paxys  5 hours ago

Thing is that Netflix didn't really succeed at that goal. HBO was and still is the gold standard for premium cable content. Netflix instead decided to go for the bottom 70% of the market, and the quality of their shows reflects that.

In fact the very reason for this purchase is that they desperately need help on the creative side.

Netflix is what it is today because all the studios trying to compete with their tech was an even bigger disaster than Netflix competing on content.

  • triceratops  5 hours ago

    I don't think the Netflix vs HBO comparison is fair.

    HBO was always one channel in a home. They produced a limited amount of high-quality content. You watch it a few times a week and network TV reality shows or whatever other trash the rest of the week.

    Netflix wanted/wants to be the only channel in cord-cutting and cord-never homes. When that's your goal you have to produce mostly crap and some good stuff.

  • jimbokun  3 hours ago

    I'm not sure how you quantify "premium cable content" but Netflix has certainly made great strides in that market.

raverbashing  6 hours ago

After that complete fumble of HBO becoming "Max" they were at their last legs

  • justin66  5 hours ago

    The "Max" fiasco was pretty much the strangest branding mistake ever. Not just an obvious mistake but it was honestly kind of a mystery that anyone would even be tempted to do that.

    • tempoponet  5 hours ago

      Remember when Netflix almost split its brand with "Quickster"? It was the dying DVD by mail service, but the whole debacle did nothing but confuse people.