AT&T’s Troubling Plan to Change HBO

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.

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.

You can't scale up a high quality / premium product to match what Netflix is doing. Netflix is a volume machine, they turn out tons of trash to go with their mid-quality and high quality productions. If HBO does the exact same thing as Netflix, their brand will be destroyed. There's no value in being a clone of Netflix, the world has no use for that. There's immense value in continuing to very carefully increase the scale of what HBO does so well.

HBO can be a $80 billion premium product company and co-exist with Netflix, versus $150b for Netflix. If AT&T is smart at all, they'll happily keep their Ferrari instead of trying to become GM/Ford/Honda/whatever and destroying the brand in the process.

Simply put, there will only be one Netflix, if HBO goes the clone route they will die. If HBO stays HBO, Netflix can't kill them.

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.

I guess this is a matter of opinion, but I’ll bite anyway. What content do you watch from Netflix or Amazon that you find to be comparable to HBO’s tentpole programming?

To be honest with you, I find Amazon’s content to be...well, bad. On the other hand Netflix has a few good shows, but the company is clearly prioritizing quantity over quality. Not only does its content not have the awards or acclaim HBO’s garners, but it just churns out forgettable movie after forgettable movie. A lot of Netflix’s content is becoming the new “direct to TV” movie.

HBO’s approach is to produce character-driven and thought-provoking programming which is ahead of the curve. That’s not everyone’s cup of tea when it comes to entertainment, but they naturally achieve greater critical acclaim and cult status. It’s hard to think of a way most of Netflix or Amazon’s content can be compared to HBO’s except, “It’s entertaining.” In what way do you see Netflix or Amazon innovating? For what definition of “good” do you find your favorite Netflix and Amazon shows comparing favorably with HBO’s?

For a while I held high hopes of Netflix becoming a new HBO because House of Cards was exceptional. But they didn’t exactly make that a trend. And while we’re on the subject of UI, Netflix is so hellbent on having me binge watch the day away that I can’t hover over a title for more than 1 second without it blaring a crappy trailer at me. The native Netflix experience (LG TV, AppleTV) has me scurrying from title to title like a mad squirrel hoping to read a description without triggering the trailer.