Netflix could be bundled with cable to compete with HBO
updated 05:35 pm EST, Wed February 29, 2012
CEO sees Netflix possibly as part of cable package
Netflix's CEO, Reed Hastings, believes that in the future, cable television and his company could be partners rather than competitors. Hastings thinks that the cable service providers could fold the streaming movie and DVD rental company's service into their programming as a counterbalance to HBO. Hastings made his comments at the Morgan Stanley Technology, Media and Telecom Conference in San Francisco on Tuesday.
The cable providers are slowly changing, in Hasting's view. Ultimately, they will evolve into an on demand internet-based service. The cable companies would "like to have a competitor to HBO," and the Netflix CEO saw his company as being that force.
Hastings' comments reflect an ongoing theme in his thinking. In his eyes, Netflix's competition is not other streaming video services such as iTunes, Amazon Prime, or Comcast's new Streampix, but rather HBO and its HBO Go VoD offering.
The Netflix CEO also sees original content as another battleground, and one of the reasons why his company is creating its own homegrown material. Netflix released its first original series, Lilyhammer, earlier this month. [via paidContent]
