HBO Is Looking to Close the Gap on Netflix by Adopting a Similar Strategy

As earlier reported by the Business Insider, it appears that HBO is in the midst of making some moves — more specifically, moves that resemble ones from arguably its biggest competitor in Netflix. Following AT&T’s acquisition of Time Warner — HBO’s parent company — both Warner Media CEO John Stankey and HBO CEO Richard Plepler have discussed broadening its scope to include more original content.

For years, the network embodied an approach far different from Netflix, throwing its focus on quality programming, most of which included a strong back catalog of movies on top of a few marquee shows. For instance, just last year Plepler discussed HBO’s previous strategy of less is more, stating “more is not better, only better is better.” However, in a recent town meeting acquired by The New York Times, Plepler changed his tune explaining, “I’ve said, ‘More is not better, only better is better,’ because that was the hand we had. I’ve switched that, now that you’re here, to: ‘More isn’t better, only better is better — but we need a lot more to be even better.’”

HBO’s streaming service, HBO Now, has an estimated 142 million subscribers worldwide but doesn’t quite feel that is near enough to adequately compete. For now, only time will reveal if HBO can indeed close the gap amongst some of its competitors by adding more original content.

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