- With 42 million US subscribers, almost six billion dollars in profit over the past three years, and 29 Primetime Emmy Awards in 2017 alone, it goes without saying HBO is doing something right. But according to AT&T executive and newly enthroned WarnerMedia CEO John Stankey, the network must broaden its focus if it wants to maintain proper competitive footing in the fluctuating media landscape.
And by flourish he means help us earn back our investment. HBO is fine now. But I'm not that opinionated about his careful wording that hides the still obvious implied meaning because more money could mean more and better shows. Or more generic shows to reach a bigger, stupider audience. We'll see.
This is gross. Don’t mean to get romantic, but what about spending hours a day... with other people?* *Written from a screen he spends hours on a day.While Stankey didn't mention Netflix, Hulu, or other streaming rivals outright, he did hint that HBO's business model needs to adapt in order to become what chairman Richard Plepler describes as 'sustainable': "We need hours a day...It's not hours a week, and it's not hours a month. We need hours a day. You are competing with devices that sit in people's hands that capture their attention every 15 minutes." Stankey told The New York Times.
This guy doesn’t get it. People who subscribe to HBO at $15 a month pay the premium to get 4-8 hours of premium content. They do it because they have a ton on disposable income but not a lot of free time. Their time is valuable and they don’t have the luxury of wasting it on shit content. Hours of shit content a day, leave that for cable.