HBO Chief Throws Shade at Netflix, Says It ‘Doesn’t Have a Brand’
Begun, the Netflix Wars have. In the midst of Steven Spielberg’s push to make it more difficult for the streaming giant to qualify for the Academy Awards, Bob Greenblatt, the just-hired head of HBO, threw shade at Netflix when he told NBC News‘ Dylan Byers that the company “doesn’t have a brand. It’s just a place you go to get anything — it’s like Encyclopedia Britannica.” Netflix acquires and produces an ever-increasing number of movies and TV series, having spent billions in the last few years.
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Greenblatt was also complimentary, saying that the service has a “great business model when you’re trying to reach as many people on the planet as you can” and praising “Master of None” and “Russian Doll” in particular. “There are all kinds of things that are exciting,” he said. “It’s just got to be really quality.”
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As for the many other streaming services available, like Amazon and Hulu, Greenblatt said it’s “getting to be a crowded field. We think there’s room to carve out a very good consumer base for us…We have our collection of assets, and I think we can put them together in a way that’s really compelling.”
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