7 ms·

AT&T’s Troubling Plan to Change HBO

91 points by okket 8y ago

homero 8y ago
HBO is incredible. Sharp objects with Amy Adams just premiered last night. AT&T is going to ruin it.
- wolco 8y ago
  I subscribed recently and watched silicon valley, entourage, ballers, veep and watching the wire now. What do you recommend, as most of the other series I haven't heard much about them and hbo shows for some reason seem a little bit harder to get started with.
  - homero 8y ago
    I loved ballers. Vice news is great. Generation kill is incredible but very old, it should be on streaming. Watch the last season of curb your enthusiasm.
    - stcredzero 8y ago
      Vice news is great Some of what they do is great. Some is biased in a disturbingly pointed way.
  - adzm 8y ago
    Sopranos, Westworld, Six Feet Under, Curb Your Enthusiasm
    - robterrell 8y ago
      Deadwood.
    - kjksf 8y ago
      Sopranos, Curb Your Enthusiasm, Six Feet Under, Sex And the City and The Wire are currently "free" in Amazon Prime. At some point those licenses will expire but this illustrates the "innovator's dilemma" as applied to HBO. They have a good business of selling cable subscriptions for new stuff, licensing their past shows to Amazon, Hulu and other willing buyers and selling on-demand access via Apple, Amazon etc. Now they need to compete with Netlifx, which has a large catalog of licensed, popular shows from all over and their own exclusive content. To compete with that HBO would have to drop revenue from licensing (there's less reasons to pay for HBO if I can get a lot of their good stuff elsewhere) Their cable subscriptions are probably going to decline no matter what. Cable subscriber count is on a steady, 6 year decline (http://www.businessinsider.com/cable-tv-subscriber-losses-q2-chart-2017-6 http://www.businessinsider.com/cable-tv-subscriber-losses-q2...) despite being propped by internet + cable bundles. That decline is accelerating i.e. every year more people are cancelling cable as a percentage. If that continues, it'll be a bloodbath. If the decline stops accelerating, it'll still be bloodbath, just later. I don't see a scenario in which cable starts growing again. Netlifx model is easy to explain but almost impossible to replicate. The model is: get so many subscribers from all over the world paying you relatively small amount that you'll be able to outspend any other company in quantity of TV/movie exclusive content, thus making it even more likely to get new subscribers. This is "rich get richer" model and Netflix is already the richest. People will be willing to buy 2-3 such subscriptions so that's how many winning slots there are. So HBO better fight hard for that 2nd or 3rd position, but unfortunately just like BlockBuster or Borders had a good business until they didn't, HBO might not do enough to compete.
  - jstarfish 8y ago
    Rome. Even if you aren't a history buff (I am not, myself) it is still a rich story.
  - arkis22 8y ago
    Deadwood is excellent. The Larry Sanders Show is one of the best comedies ever.
  - pan69 8y ago
    Band of Brothers and The Pacific I thought were great HBO series. Also Rome is a great series.
  - dylan604 8y ago
    True Detective Season 1. Don't watch Season 2.
jasonlotito 8y ago
This was discussed by my friends and myself earlier today. The general sentiment is it's going to be interesting watching how AT&T burns HBO to the ground and ruins it. The attitude and what came out of that meeting made none of us feel good about the acquisition, and pretty much hands down people are ready to just unsubscribe once it seems like quality drops.
jrs95 8y ago
They don’t necessarily have to ruin HBO in order to compete with Netflix. They can expand HBO Now as a platform while allowing HBO to continue doing what they do best.
gamechangr 8y ago
HBO is too great to be ruined by AT&T. Wiki says "HBO is the oldest and longest continuously operating pay television service (basic or premium) in the United States". I'm not under estimating HBO. like the rest of the fear mongering I hear from my friends :) AT&T doesn't' have what it takes to ruin it.
- karcass 8y ago
  I dunno man. The Russians impoverished East Germany.
  - barry-cotter 8y ago
    East Germany was the richest Soviet conquest and the richest ex-Soviet bloc state at the dissolution of the Soviet empire. Coming close to keeping up with West Germany is pretty good for a Communist state.
    - WillPostForFood 8y ago
      Richest ex-Soviet Bloc state is like healthiest terminally ill patient. Comparing East Germany to West seems more “germane.”
      - diogenescynic 8y ago
        You’re both right.
- michaelpinto 8y ago
  You have to define what "ruin" really is. Ruin could mean no longer being a viable brand, in which case you may be right. However ruin can also mean a creative decline in terms of creating new series, and if they're shifting to an ad supported model and try to appeal to the widest audience that may really be the case.
- stcredzero 8y ago
  AT&T has a history of buying companies, then specifically lobotomizing the factor that made them special.
matte_black 8y ago
Can someone explain why it’s obviously doomed?
- MBCook 8y ago
  They bought a niche diamond mine and want it to be a giant aluminum recycling company. HBO makes a few REALLY good series. That’s what they do. They are not setup to produce 10x as much content. If they do they may not have the people who can do that with reasonable quality. They’re used to polishing gems. You wouldn’t buy Nintendo and order them to make a console more powerful than the XBox One X. That’s not what they do. This probably won’t go well.
  - s2g 8y ago
    > You wouldn’t buy Nintendo and order them to make a console more powerful than the XBox One X. That’s not what they do. Except Nintendo could do that and be fine. Probably not, but if the third party is strong. This is more like telling them to start shoving out a mario game twice a year.
    - zeusk 8y ago
      > Except Nintendo could do that and be fine. I believe otherwise. Most of Nintendo's marketing and appeal is based around gameplay and nostalgia; not graphical prowess. A Nintendo more powerful than one X would cost more since Microsoft amortizes some of the cost over Live services and in-store purchases whereas Nintendo focuses on 1st party games with no recurring revenue. Price elasticity is perhaps most visible in the console arena where consumers are extremely sensitive to upfront costs.
      - MBCook 8y ago
        Right. If they did that they wouldn’t be Nintendo. Sure they could get all the multi-platform AAA games, but then they would just be another MS. There wouldn’t be anything to distinguish them. Except their terrible online services. Their games would have to get better (graphically) to fit on the console as best-of-breed, which would dramatically increase their development cost. So we wouldn’t see the wonderful variety and depth of first party releases from them anymore. And as history has shown both Microsoft and Sony have HUGE budgets and can afford to lose a few generations to stay in the game. Nintendo can’t. David go from special player on this side who’s doing great to a nobody. Does anyone really think a lot of parents are going to spend $600 to buy their kids the next Mario game?
devmunchies 8y ago
This was already HBOs plan before the merger was finalized (I interviewed there a year ago)
kemiller 8y ago
They should tap HBO's expertise and connections to build a Netflix competitor while keeping the HBO brand premium. Flogging a racehorse to make it pull a wagon train will just end in tears for everyone. I bet the champagne came out in Los Gatos.
- ordinaryperson 8y ago
  Developing hit shows like "Game of Thrones" is extremely hard, and the competition for streaming content is cuthroat. Meanwhile AT&T essentially only competes with Verizon, and does that primarily by offering the exact same services -- not exactly revolutionary, Harvard Business School Case Study stuff. What has AT&T done in the last 20 years that was original? Mainly its operating business strategy is to raise prices as a regional, quasi-monopoly. But sure, it's the (not highly paid) HBO employees that have to work harder, emulate those brilliant AT&T execs and their super original business growth strategies.
  - tptacek 8y ago
    What is it that you think the prestige networks do to develop shows? They're not writing them themselves; they buy them from writers and production companies. Nobody is suggesting that AT&T is going to pull the next Sopranos out of a conference room meeting.
    - ordinaryperson 8y ago
      If it were just a matter of buying ready-made TV, anybody could do it. Showrunners come to them with raw ideas and the first step is to filter out most of the bad ones. Then there's writing, casting, budgeting, filming, editing, marketing...you make it sound like HBO is a bunch of cardboard cutouts and they just order up completed shows from Amazon. My point is AT&T has done practically zero creative or truly innovative in the last 20-25 years, it's comical to listen to a career AT&T suit lecture HBO staffers (who excel in a field far more difficult than his) about how they need to work harder.
dagenix 8y ago
So, basically day 1 of owning HBO, they tell the employees that they aren't making enough money (even though they are quite profitable) and that they are going to have to work harder. I'm speculating here, but I'm guessing there was probably no talk about compensating them more. Its hard to imagine a better way of convincing all your best employees to start thinking about switching jobs.
- hinkley 8y ago
  Yeah but think of all the money you’ll save in salaries!
  - AceJohnny2 8y ago
    "Nice Golden Goose you got there..."
    - tonysdg 8y ago
      "...be real shame if someone was to acquire it, force it to produce twice as many eggs on half the feed, create a half-baked digital platform on which you could watch it lay eggs in real-time, watch as its health slowly declined in the face of insurmountable odds, notice the new Platinum-producing Pig making headlines in town, acquire that animal too, then sell what's left of the goose to a local French bistro to make gold-encrusted foie gras for the same someone to enjoy while watching House of Cards for the 3rd time on Netflix."
      - AceJohnny2 8y ago
        That was oddly specific and disturbing. Well done!
      - bdefore 8y ago
        Sublime stuff that!
forapurpose 8y ago
I've wondered about HBO's future. I see a few problems: First, it used to be the only source for intelligent programming. Now I can get as good or better content from Netflix, Amazon, and smaller arthouse-oriented channels. HBO doesn't stand out to me. Second, streaming channels are a la carte, not bundled, and I'd have to pay cable TV-sized bills to subscribe to 100 channels. HBO doesn't seem to offer enough to be worth a separate subscription. Finally, the lack of an integrated listing UI means that I have to open the HBO channel to see what's playing there. It's rarely worth the effort with so many other options that have more content.
- wil421 8y ago
  Netflix takes the shotgun approach, put out as much programming as possible and something will stick. Amazon has yet to provide anything but a bad UI/UX on top of tv or music I can find from a much better competitor. Silicon Valley, Westworld, Vice, and Game of Thrones are worth it plus a steady stream of new movies. Not to mention their older shows. HBO’s quality is much higher than Netflix and Amazon doesn’t even compare.
  - danso 8y ago
    I do agree that HBO's original series are yet unmatched, and that Netflix's and Prime's efforts have not yet reached the same level (I'm personally not a huge fan of "House of Cards"). But HBO as a paid service isn't just competing with exclusives, but with 3rd-party content that Netflix/Prime can license. On Prime, not only is there the soon-to-be exclusive "The Expanse", but they have USA Network's "Mr. Robot", SyFy's "BSG", all the Star Treks (sans "Discovery"), BBC's "Downton Abbey" and "Peep Show". They even have the best of HBO's classics, e.g. Sopranos, Deadwood, Curb Your Enthusiasm, and the remastered version of The Wire. I used to subscribe to HBO but now only do so when their big drama exclusives are in season (GoT and WW).
    - Apocryphon 8y ago
      GP also forgets that Amazon has "The Man in the High Castle", which might be their one big prestige drama.
esaym 8y ago
I gave up on HBO 15+ years ago after every single new show they made was nothing but a non stop stream of cuss words. Their only way to stand out just seems to be by bringing new levels of raunchiness to the viewer, and that gets old.
- PhantomGremlin 8y ago
  How do you make a show like The Sopranos without cuss words? Not too many mobsters earn an Eagle Scout medal. And if you tell me that The Sopranos wasn't realistic, I'd say you weren't paying attention to the news in the NYC metropolitan area. Many/most of the show's plots were, at the least, "inspired by actual events". You can always watch the Hallmark Channel on basic cable. Not too many cuss words there.
  - jstarfish 8y ago
    Eh, I dont know what the OP had in mind, but I've watched all the big HBO shows and the only one that was unwatchable specifically due to profanity was Deadwood. Whatever story it had was absolutely drowned out by dialogue written by prepubescent boys who just learned the word "fuck" for the first time.
tptacek 8y ago
I don't buy the logic here, and I'm not sure David Sims does either; this strikes me as one of those headlines that was written by an editor, independently of the article. For as much as anybody here likes HBO, the diagnosis Stankey (and, I think, Sims) has of it seems apt. HBO has a sterling reputation. But so what? Even today, they're no longer distinctively good; in fact, there are basic cable channels (AMC and FX) that have given HBO a run for its money. Does anyone really believe that HBO is going to outcompete Netflix on original programming over the long run? Netflix introduces new programs like Google introduces new chat programs. It's not even an event for them. They just randomly drop them in the middle of the week, as if they don't have time even to promote them. Have you ever started an episode of Jessica Jones and had to wait 2 minutes for them to promo the next season of Mindhunter? And that's just Netflix. Amazon will eventually figure TV out. Disney controls Hulu now. Apple is making a move into online video. Meanwhile, after Game of Thrones ends, what's HBO got for tentpole series? Westworld? Besides the fact that it won't be airing again for 2-3 years, its renewal was not even a certainty. I think Stankey is right. If HBO is going to be a factor long-term, a thing people pay substantial amounts of money to retain access to, it is going to have to look more like Netflix and less like a thing you pay your cable company extra for. HBO could afford lulls of a year or two taking flyers on just 1-2 new prestige series (Carnivale; Newsroom; Vinyl). But premium cable is over, everything is going to be disintermediated, and HBO will need to justify demanding $15/mo directly from people. I'm not sure it's worth that today.
- stcredzero 8y ago
  I don't buy the logic here, and I'm not sure David Sims does either; this strikes me as one of those headlines that was written by an editor, independently of the article. There are a lot of those nowadays. Have you noticed too? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JiE6gI0fYuA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JiE6gI0fYuA Netflix introduces new programs like Google introduces new chat programs. It's not even an event for them. They just randomly drop them in the middle of the week, as if they don't have time even to promote them. It looks like Netflix is trying to use the same methods and tactics as YouTube for promoting content by algorithmically presenting content to users. Is Netflix changing itself into an "ecosystem" for show starters and show runners? That would be a nice way to outsource the risk. Amazon will eventually figure TV out. Amazon is well positioned to do the same. But premium cable is over, everything is going to be disintermediated The same needs to happen to news!
zjaffee 8y ago
AT&T owns a ton of content through owning Warner Media https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_assets_owned_by_WarnerMedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_assets_owned_by_Warner... and my guess is that they will be able to show that content on netflix. At least from my perspective, netflix has become a less desirable place to spend time on, given that they have taken down a lot of their third party content, something that AT&T and HBO will likely be able to resurface.
deleted 8y ago
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SubiculumCode 8y ago
I get HBO, binge on the new show, then cancel after a month. They have some good content, but not enough to keep me paying $10+ or whatever each month.
softwaredoug 8y ago
Funny it seems Netflix has been doing everything it can to be HBO! (And that’s a good thing!)
- thirdsun 8y ago
  It needs to try harder. I'm still waiting for anything coming close to The Wire or The Sopranos.
watertom 8y ago
Netflix is as agile as they come. AT&T needs a crooked FCC to pass laws in order to make their exiting business model viable, and they have something everyone needs Internet and Cell phone, and they are basically only 1 of 4 players.
decacorn1 8y ago
I don’t care what AT&T does with HBO, just let John Oliver keep doing what he’s doing! Thanks.
brisance 8y ago
Interesting that neither the article nor a single comment mentioned AT&T's efforts to undermine net neutrality. That would be their ace up the sleeve. And they can get away with it because this administration is corrupt to the core.
- everybodyknows 8y ago
  With its position as ISP, AT&T can make trouble for Netflix content delivery. And they know how. Remember all those independent DSL providers, back around the millennium? I had one for years, then intermittent failures set in. After months of debugging, the cause was traced to misconfigured AT&T equipment in the local office. It's as easy and untraceable as deprioritizing Netflix-sensitive operations tasks.
- deleted 8y ago
  [deleted]
lawl 8y ago
> HBO NOW is only supported in the U.S. and select U.S. territories. Oh yeah, I still have to pirate the HBO shows I want to watch. Even the Netflix catalogue seems to be shrinking rather than growing here outside of the US. Apparently you can get Netflix to show more stuff here by changing the language on the web interface because they only show me stuff that has dubs for my language. Can't do that in-app though. Uh, hello, I understand English well enough to be able to watch your fucking show in English, why does my room mate have to call your support to figure this out? So now they want to turn HBO which is even worse than Netflix into Netflix? Cool, I'll still be pirating. yawn
burntrelish1273 8y ago
Don't feel so bad about the analog satellite downlink hack box and torrenting anymore. The question is: will programming decline?
dec0dedab0de 8y ago
I think George Carlin's death hurt HBO more than anything. That is to say if they were still the home of stand-up comedy they might still be cool. They really dropped the ball on that.
kisstheblade 8y ago
And then HBO makes a show like Westworld, i.e. low quality of shows and low amount, what a winning strategy :)

91 points by okket 8y ago

homero 8y ago

HBO is incredible. Sharp objects with Amy Adams just premiered last night. AT&T is going to ruin it.

wolco 8y ago
I subscribed recently and watched silicon valley, entourage, ballers, veep and watching the wire now. What do you recommend, as most of the other series I haven't heard much about them and hbo shows for some reason seem a little bit harder to get started with.
- homero 8y ago
  I loved ballers. Vice news is great. Generation kill is incredible but very old, it should be on streaming. Watch the last season of curb your enthusiasm.
  - stcredzero 8y ago
    Vice news is great Some of what they do is great. Some is biased in a disturbingly pointed way.
- adzm 8y ago
  Sopranos, Westworld, Six Feet Under, Curb Your Enthusiasm
  - robterrell 8y ago
    Deadwood.
  - kjksf 8y ago
    Sopranos, Curb Your Enthusiasm, Six Feet Under, Sex And the City and The Wire are currently "free" in Amazon Prime. At some point those licenses will expire but this illustrates the "innovator's dilemma" as applied to HBO. They have a good business of selling cable subscriptions for new stuff, licensing their past shows to Amazon, Hulu and other willing buyers and selling on-demand access via Apple, Amazon etc. Now they need to compete with Netlifx, which has a large catalog of licensed, popular shows from all over and their own exclusive content. To compete with that HBO would have to drop revenue from licensing (there's less reasons to pay for HBO if I can get a lot of their good stuff elsewhere) Their cable subscriptions are probably going to decline no matter what. Cable subscriber count is on a steady, 6 year decline (http://www.businessinsider.com/cable-tv-subscriber-losses-q2-chart-2017-6 http://www.businessinsider.com/cable-tv-subscriber-losses-q2...) despite being propped by internet + cable bundles. That decline is accelerating i.e. every year more people are cancelling cable as a percentage. If that continues, it'll be a bloodbath. If the decline stops accelerating, it'll still be bloodbath, just later. I don't see a scenario in which cable starts growing again. Netlifx model is easy to explain but almost impossible to replicate. The model is: get so many subscribers from all over the world paying you relatively small amount that you'll be able to outspend any other company in quantity of TV/movie exclusive content, thus making it even more likely to get new subscribers. This is "rich get richer" model and Netflix is already the richest. People will be willing to buy 2-3 such subscriptions so that's how many winning slots there are. So HBO better fight hard for that 2nd or 3rd position, but unfortunately just like BlockBuster or Borders had a good business until they didn't, HBO might not do enough to compete.
- jstarfish 8y ago
  Rome. Even if you aren't a history buff (I am not, myself) it is still a rich story.
- arkis22 8y ago
  Deadwood is excellent. The Larry Sanders Show is one of the best comedies ever.
- pan69 8y ago
  Band of Brothers and The Pacific I thought were great HBO series. Also Rome is a great series.
- dylan604 8y ago
  True Detective Season 1. Don't watch Season 2.

jasonlotito 8y ago

This was discussed by my friends and myself earlier today. The general sentiment is it's going to be interesting watching how AT&T burns HBO to the ground and ruins it. The attitude and what came out of that meeting made none of us feel good about the acquisition, and pretty much hands down people are ready to just unsubscribe once it seems like quality drops.

jrs95 8y ago

They don’t necessarily have to ruin HBO in order to compete with Netflix. They can expand HBO Now as a platform while allowing HBO to continue doing what they do best.

gamechangr 8y ago

HBO is too great to be ruined by AT&T. Wiki says "HBO is the oldest and longest continuously operating pay television service (basic or premium) in the United States". I'm not under estimating HBO. like the rest of the fear mongering I hear from my friends :) AT&T doesn't' have what it takes to ruin it.

karcass 8y ago
I dunno man. The Russians impoverished East Germany.
- barry-cotter 8y ago
  East Germany was the richest Soviet conquest and the richest ex-Soviet bloc state at the dissolution of the Soviet empire. Coming close to keeping up with West Germany is pretty good for a Communist state.
  - WillPostForFood 8y ago
    Richest ex-Soviet Bloc state is like healthiest terminally ill patient. Comparing East Germany to West seems more “germane.”
    - diogenescynic 8y ago
      You’re both right.
michaelpinto 8y ago
You have to define what "ruin" really is. Ruin could mean no longer being a viable brand, in which case you may be right. However ruin can also mean a creative decline in terms of creating new series, and if they're shifting to an ad supported model and try to appeal to the widest audience that may really be the case.
stcredzero 8y ago
AT&T has a history of buying companies, then specifically lobotomizing the factor that made them special.

matte_black 8y ago

Can someone explain why it’s obviously doomed?

MBCook 8y ago
They bought a niche diamond mine and want it to be a giant aluminum recycling company. HBO makes a few REALLY good series. That’s what they do. They are not setup to produce 10x as much content. If they do they may not have the people who can do that with reasonable quality. They’re used to polishing gems. You wouldn’t buy Nintendo and order them to make a console more powerful than the XBox One X. That’s not what they do. This probably won’t go well.
- s2g 8y ago
  > You wouldn’t buy Nintendo and order them to make a console more powerful than the XBox One X. That’s not what they do. Except Nintendo could do that and be fine. Probably not, but if the third party is strong. This is more like telling them to start shoving out a mario game twice a year.
  - zeusk 8y ago
    > Except Nintendo could do that and be fine. I believe otherwise. Most of Nintendo's marketing and appeal is based around gameplay and nostalgia; not graphical prowess. A Nintendo more powerful than one X would cost more since Microsoft amortizes some of the cost over Live services and in-store purchases whereas Nintendo focuses on 1st party games with no recurring revenue. Price elasticity is perhaps most visible in the console arena where consumers are extremely sensitive to upfront costs.
    - MBCook 8y ago
      Right. If they did that they wouldn’t be Nintendo. Sure they could get all the multi-platform AAA games, but then they would just be another MS. There wouldn’t be anything to distinguish them. Except their terrible online services. Their games would have to get better (graphically) to fit on the console as best-of-breed, which would dramatically increase their development cost. So we wouldn’t see the wonderful variety and depth of first party releases from them anymore. And as history has shown both Microsoft and Sony have HUGE budgets and can afford to lose a few generations to stay in the game. Nintendo can’t. David go from special player on this side who’s doing great to a nobody. Does anyone really think a lot of parents are going to spend $600 to buy their kids the next Mario game?

devmunchies 8y ago

This was already HBOs plan before the merger was finalized (I interviewed there a year ago)

kemiller 8y ago

They should tap HBO's expertise and connections to build a Netflix competitor while keeping the HBO brand premium. Flogging a racehorse to make it pull a wagon train will just end in tears for everyone. I bet the champagne came out in Los Gatos.

ordinaryperson 8y ago
Developing hit shows like "Game of Thrones" is extremely hard, and the competition for streaming content is cuthroat. Meanwhile AT&T essentially only competes with Verizon, and does that primarily by offering the exact same services -- not exactly revolutionary, Harvard Business School Case Study stuff. What has AT&T done in the last 20 years that was original? Mainly its operating business strategy is to raise prices as a regional, quasi-monopoly. But sure, it's the (not highly paid) HBO employees that have to work harder, emulate those brilliant AT&T execs and their super original business growth strategies.
- tptacek 8y ago
  What is it that you think the prestige networks do to develop shows? They're not writing them themselves; they buy them from writers and production companies. Nobody is suggesting that AT&T is going to pull the next Sopranos out of a conference room meeting.
  - ordinaryperson 8y ago
    If it were just a matter of buying ready-made TV, anybody could do it. Showrunners come to them with raw ideas and the first step is to filter out most of the bad ones. Then there's writing, casting, budgeting, filming, editing, marketing...you make it sound like HBO is a bunch of cardboard cutouts and they just order up completed shows from Amazon. My point is AT&T has done practically zero creative or truly innovative in the last 20-25 years, it's comical to listen to a career AT&T suit lecture HBO staffers (who excel in a field far more difficult than his) about how they need to work harder.

dagenix 8y ago

So, basically day 1 of owning HBO, they tell the employees that they aren't making enough money (even though they are quite profitable) and that they are going to have to work harder. I'm speculating here, but I'm guessing there was probably no talk about compensating them more. Its hard to imagine a better way of convincing all your best employees to start thinking about switching jobs.

hinkley 8y ago
Yeah but think of all the money you’ll save in salaries!
- AceJohnny2 8y ago
  "Nice Golden Goose you got there..."
  - tonysdg 8y ago
    "...be real shame if someone was to acquire it, force it to produce twice as many eggs on half the feed, create a half-baked digital platform on which you could watch it lay eggs in real-time, watch as its health slowly declined in the face of insurmountable odds, notice the new Platinum-producing Pig making headlines in town, acquire that animal too, then sell what's left of the goose to a local French bistro to make gold-encrusted foie gras for the same someone to enjoy while watching House of Cards for the 3rd time on Netflix."
    - AceJohnny2 8y ago
      That was oddly specific and disturbing. Well done!
    - bdefore 8y ago
      Sublime stuff that!

forapurpose 8y ago

I've wondered about HBO's future. I see a few problems: First, it used to be the only source for intelligent programming. Now I can get as good or better content from Netflix, Amazon, and smaller arthouse-oriented channels. HBO doesn't stand out to me. Second, streaming channels are a la carte, not bundled, and I'd have to pay cable TV-sized bills to subscribe to 100 channels. HBO doesn't seem to offer enough to be worth a separate subscription. Finally, the lack of an integrated listing UI means that I have to open the HBO channel to see what's playing there. It's rarely worth the effort with so many other options that have more content.

wil421 8y ago
Netflix takes the shotgun approach, put out as much programming as possible and something will stick. Amazon has yet to provide anything but a bad UI/UX on top of tv or music I can find from a much better competitor. Silicon Valley, Westworld, Vice, and Game of Thrones are worth it plus a steady stream of new movies. Not to mention their older shows. HBO’s quality is much higher than Netflix and Amazon doesn’t even compare.
- danso 8y ago
  I do agree that HBO's original series are yet unmatched, and that Netflix's and Prime's efforts have not yet reached the same level (I'm personally not a huge fan of "House of Cards"). But HBO as a paid service isn't just competing with exclusives, but with 3rd-party content that Netflix/Prime can license. On Prime, not only is there the soon-to-be exclusive "The Expanse", but they have USA Network's "Mr. Robot", SyFy's "BSG", all the Star Treks (sans "Discovery"), BBC's "Downton Abbey" and "Peep Show". They even have the best of HBO's classics, e.g. Sopranos, Deadwood, Curb Your Enthusiasm, and the remastered version of The Wire. I used to subscribe to HBO but now only do so when their big drama exclusives are in season (GoT and WW).
  - Apocryphon 8y ago
    GP also forgets that Amazon has "The Man in the High Castle", which might be their one big prestige drama.

esaym 8y ago

I gave up on HBO 15+ years ago after every single new show they made was nothing but a non stop stream of cuss words. Their only way to stand out just seems to be by bringing new levels of raunchiness to the viewer, and that gets old.

PhantomGremlin 8y ago
How do you make a show like The Sopranos without cuss words? Not too many mobsters earn an Eagle Scout medal. And if you tell me that The Sopranos wasn't realistic, I'd say you weren't paying attention to the news in the NYC metropolitan area. Many/most of the show's plots were, at the least, "inspired by actual events". You can always watch the Hallmark Channel on basic cable. Not too many cuss words there.
- jstarfish 8y ago
  Eh, I dont know what the OP had in mind, but I've watched all the big HBO shows and the only one that was unwatchable specifically due to profanity was Deadwood. Whatever story it had was absolutely drowned out by dialogue written by prepubescent boys who just learned the word "fuck" for the first time.

tptacek 8y ago

I don't buy the logic here, and I'm not sure David Sims does either; this strikes me as one of those headlines that was written by an editor, independently of the article. For as much as anybody here likes HBO, the diagnosis Stankey (and, I think, Sims) has of it seems apt. HBO has a sterling reputation. But so what? Even today, they're no longer distinctively good; in fact, there are basic cable channels (AMC and FX) that have given HBO a run for its money. Does anyone really believe that HBO is going to outcompete Netflix on original programming over the long run? Netflix introduces new programs like Google introduces new chat programs. It's not even an event for them. They just randomly drop them in the middle of the week, as if they don't have time even to promote them. Have you ever started an episode of Jessica Jones and had to wait 2 minutes for them to promo the next season of Mindhunter? And that's just Netflix. Amazon will eventually figure TV out. Disney controls Hulu now. Apple is making a move into online video. Meanwhile, after Game of Thrones ends, what's HBO got for tentpole series? Westworld? Besides the fact that it won't be airing again for 2-3 years, its renewal was not even a certainty. I think Stankey is right. If HBO is going to be a factor long-term, a thing people pay substantial amounts of money to retain access to, it is going to have to look more like Netflix and less like a thing you pay your cable company extra for. HBO could afford lulls of a year or two taking flyers on just 1-2 new prestige series (Carnivale; Newsroom; Vinyl). But premium cable is over, everything is going to be disintermediated, and HBO will need to justify demanding $15/mo directly from people. I'm not sure it's worth that today.

stcredzero 8y ago
I don't buy the logic here, and I'm not sure David Sims does either; this strikes me as one of those headlines that was written by an editor, independently of the article. There are a lot of those nowadays. Have you noticed too? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JiE6gI0fYuA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JiE6gI0fYuA Netflix introduces new programs like Google introduces new chat programs. It's not even an event for them. They just randomly drop them in the middle of the week, as if they don't have time even to promote them. It looks like Netflix is trying to use the same methods and tactics as YouTube for promoting content by algorithmically presenting content to users. Is Netflix changing itself into an "ecosystem" for show starters and show runners? That would be a nice way to outsource the risk. Amazon will eventually figure TV out. Amazon is well positioned to do the same. But premium cable is over, everything is going to be disintermediated The same needs to happen to news!

zjaffee 8y ago

AT&T owns a ton of content through owning Warner Media https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_assets_owned_by_WarnerMedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_assets_owned_by_Warner... and my guess is that they will be able to show that content on netflix. At least from my perspective, netflix has become a less desirable place to spend time on, given that they have taken down a lot of their third party content, something that AT&T and HBO will likely be able to resurface.

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SubiculumCode 8y ago

I get HBO, binge on the new show, then cancel after a month. They have some good content, but not enough to keep me paying $10+ or whatever each month.

softwaredoug 8y ago

Funny it seems Netflix has been doing everything it can to be HBO! (And that’s a good thing!)

thirdsun 8y ago
It needs to try harder. I'm still waiting for anything coming close to The Wire or The Sopranos.

watertom 8y ago

Netflix is as agile as they come. AT&T needs a crooked FCC to pass laws in order to make their exiting business model viable, and they have something everyone needs Internet and Cell phone, and they are basically only 1 of 4 players.

decacorn1 8y ago

I don’t care what AT&T does with HBO, just let John Oliver keep doing what he’s doing! Thanks.

brisance 8y ago

Interesting that neither the article nor a single comment mentioned AT&T's efforts to undermine net neutrality. That would be their ace up the sleeve. And they can get away with it because this administration is corrupt to the core.

everybodyknows 8y ago
With its position as ISP, AT&T can make trouble for Netflix content delivery. And they know how. Remember all those independent DSL providers, back around the millennium? I had one for years, then intermittent failures set in. After months of debugging, the cause was traced to misconfigured AT&T equipment in the local office. It's as easy and untraceable as deprioritizing Netflix-sensitive operations tasks.
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lawl 8y ago

> HBO NOW is only supported in the U.S. and select U.S. territories. Oh yeah, I still have to pirate the HBO shows I want to watch. Even the Netflix catalogue seems to be shrinking rather than growing here outside of the US. Apparently you can get Netflix to show more stuff here by changing the language on the web interface because they only show me stuff that has dubs for my language. Can't do that in-app though. Uh, hello, I understand English well enough to be able to watch your fucking show in English, why does my room mate have to call your support to figure this out? So now they want to turn HBO which is even worse than Netflix into Netflix? Cool, I'll still be pirating. yawn

burntrelish1273 8y ago

Don't feel so bad about the analog satellite downlink hack box and torrenting anymore. The question is: will programming decline?

dec0dedab0de 8y ago

I think George Carlin's death hurt HBO more than anything. That is to say if they were still the home of stand-up comedy they might still be cool. They really dropped the ball on that.

kisstheblade 8y ago

And then HBO makes a show like Westworld, i.e. low quality of shows and low amount, what a winning strategy :)