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AT&T’s Troubling Plan to Change HBO

theatlantic.com

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Re: AT&T’s Troubling Plan to Change HBO

#101

Post by throwawaymath »

siidooloo wrote: post #94
throwawaymath wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, I disagree strongly. I don't binge Netflix and I still feel the same way.

Do you watch 24 different HBO shows a year, or do you watch 4 or 5?

Four or five, but I don't really follow what you mean. I sit through maybe 10 pilots on Netflix that don't motivate me to watch the entire season. The last time I tried and failed to get into an HBO show was with Succession (in my opinion that show is exceptionally bad). Before that I can't recall. But on Amazon I churned off of literally everything, and on Netflix it takes me at least five duds (that are apparently a strong match for me) to find something I'll commit to. The only thing I think Netflix has really nailed is comedy, and that's because their selection of comedy is actually diverse and comprehensive. Conversely, a lot of their selection for traditional drama is formulaic.

Re: AT&T’s Troubling Plan to Change HBO

#102

Post by louky »

tptacek wrote: post #69
akira2501 wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Netflix introduces new programs like Google introduces new chat programs. Yea, and they both have equivalent staying power.

* Stranger Things * Mindhunter * Making a Murderer * Orange is the New Black * House of Cards * Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt * BoJack Horseman For better or worse, all of these shows have as much staying power as the median HBO show, and most of them have more cultural currency. However good Barry might have been, TV critics weren't burning multiple columns talking about it. And again, the idea that HBO just needs to co…

Most of those are junk after the first or second season, In my opinion. Completely unwatchable considering the great stuff out there.

Re: AT&T’s Troubling Plan to Change HBO

#103

Post by Steko »

throwawaymath wrote: post #99
Steko wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> comparable to HBO’s tentpole programming? I think this misses the forest for the tentpoles. Right now HBO's original programming is one episode per week of: Sharp Objects, Succession, Last Week Tonight, Vice and a Bill Maher special. Yes I think Netflix's better new content competes with that. Netflix supplements that with a huge array of quality third party tv shows. Non-English content is another set of moats for…

To be fair, you chose the bottom quartile of HBO content (two of those are not even the same genre of entertainment). Netflix's best content does compete with HBO, but it sure seems like it takes a lot of greenlights just to get there. I'm not really talking about how large of a selection either platform has, either. I don't think they should even directly compete. HBO's niche is precisely that its new content is gen…

> I'm not really talking about how large of a selection either platform has, either. I don't think they should even directly compete.

I don't think you can avoid the quantity argument, especially if you're going to hold up The Wire and The Sopranos, two shows that wrapped years before Netflix even got into the content game. Yes Netflix doesn't have any original content I've seen as good as The Wire or The Sopranos but they pair their many A- and B+ shows with the best of AMC (Breaking Bad, Mad Men) and British TV (Black Mirror, Peaky Blinders, UK Office), along with most of FX and Showtime's catalog and a large number of current and classic standouts (Twin Peaks, Fawlty Towers, Arrested Development, Cheers, etc.). If you want to watch high quality TV, there's a good argument that Netflix is absolutely where it's at. And if you're also interested in any kind of genre/non-highbrow TV, Netflix absolutely swamps HBO in pretty much every category.

Re: AT&T’s Troubling Plan to Change HBO

#105

Post by ordinaryperson »

tptacek wrote: post #89
ordinaryperson wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 price…

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.

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.

Re: AT&T’s Troubling Plan to Change HBO

#106

Post by _rutinerad »

tedunangst wrote: post #58
tptacek wrote: post #25

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…

Im happy to pay HBO $10 for content and $5 for curation and an app that isn't constantly hiding what it teased yesterday but has now seemingly forgotten about.

OTOH the Netflix app at least makes it obvious how I can watch the next episode of the show I watched yesterday. After having used the HBO app for two months I still don’t understand how it works for basic things.

Re: AT&T’s Troubling Plan to Change HBO

#107

Post by shanghaiaway »

KaoruAoiShiho wrote: post #56
tptacek wrote: post #25

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…

HBO is not an app, it's a feature.

Unlike the vast majority of apps, HBO is a sound business.

Re: AT&T’s Troubling Plan to Change HBO

#108

Post by ahakki »

tptacek wrote: post #60
csours wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

HBO is still distinctively good - they have the time and money to fund things like limited series, and huge shows like Westworld and GoT

Season 2 of Westworld had fewer viewers than Ballers. Ballers. You're right; it's a huge-budget show, and one HBO clearly hopes will be a tentpole. But it's no Game of Thrones.

Well Season 1 of Westworld had an interesting premise. Season 2 is just standard robot wars.

Re: AT&T’s Troubling Plan to Change HBO

#109

Post by greedo »

tptacek wrote: post #59
greedo wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The Wire. Arguably one of the best dramas ever created. The Sopranos. Deadwood. Carnivale. You're avoiding some incredible shows.

OITNB is a Netflix show, which makes my point for me. Season 5 of The Wire was just about a decade ago, and it was abbreviated because it didn't get great ratings. Carnivale was cancelled for low ratings after its second season. I'm not saying it's bad (it was a mess, though). I'm saying that HBO has to do more things like Carnivale , on a much faster schedule, if it's going to keep up with Netflix.

You're correct, I was misattributing OITNB.

Re: AT&T’s Troubling Plan to Change HBO

#110

Post by bdefore »

tonysdg wrote: post #77
AceJohnny2 wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Nice Golden Goose you got there..."

"...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 mak…

Sublime stuff that!
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