New HBO Boss Slams Netflix as ‘Walmart’ of Streaming

HBO’s new boss new Randall Stephenson recently slammed Netflix by saying they are the “Walmart” of streaming services.

According to Entertainment Weekly, Stephenson — who is the CEO of HBO‘s new owners AT&T — made the comment while speaking at the Goldman Sachs Communacopia conference.

“HBO is a very very unique asset. I think of Netflix kind of as the Walmart of [subscription video-on-demand services],” Stephenson reportedly said. “HBO is kind of the Tiffany.”

While some were apparently quick to acknowledge the fact that Walmart is actually bigger that Tiffany — in 2017 Walmart made $486 billion in revenue versus Tiffany’s $4.2 billion in sales — it seems clear that Stephenson’s jab was more based on quality than quantity.

Arguably, however, there are still some who would say that the quality argument isn’t entirely valid, as Netflix racked up 112 Emmy nominations this year and HBO came in just slightly under them with 108 nominations.

There is something to be said, though, for the fact that Netflix does churn out more original content per year than HBO, so utilizing a “bigger target” analogy it stands to reason that they would likely earn more nominations due to the sheer volume of their content.

Interestingly, earlier this year it was revealed that Netflix planned to spend $12 billion on both new and acquired content. This would include 82 feature films, 700 brand new or original series that they either produce in-house or contact for.

Netflix boss Reed Hastings takes a lot of pride in the way his company prioritizes content, and in a recent Business Insider interview he shared his thoughts on what Netflix had brought to the table when it comes to entertainment media consumption.

“It’s much more evolutionary than revolutionary,” Hastings said of the company’s mentality on distributing content. ” ‘Revolutionary’ would be more like YouTube with its open platform. And there’s good and bad in revolutions. I would say we’ve much improved television. People still watch 45-minute shows on television, but now on Netflix. That’s not a huge revolution — but that’s a big improvement and that’s important.”

Hastings also spoke about the “resistance” that Netflix has encountered along the way, saying that the majority of it of has come from “broadcasters.”

“We recently did a deal with Sky, but for many years we were competitors. Turns out we’re just another network with great content,” Hastings added. “And now they are going to carry us.”

Maybe one day Netflix and HBO will be able to mend the fences and break bread together, but today does not appear to be that day.