Business model matters.
The quote of the week for me was this one from Ted Sarandos, Netflix’s chief content officer:
The goal is to become HBO faster than HBO can become us.
Netflix will have to produce shows that are worth watching. HBO has proven it can do that over and over again for years. Netflix has not.
But Netflix allows you to have a direct relationship with them and use your account on almost every connected device I can think of. HBO requires you to have an account with a cable company and then even if you do, it is hit or miss whether you can use their service on the device you want to.
That's what I mean by business model matters.
HBO is experimenting with the Netflix business model outside of the US. They have a streaming service in four markets in Scandinavia that looks a lot like Netfix. But they don't seem eager to bring that to the US.
HBO isn't going to adopt the Netfix business model in the US without a strong reason to do so. If Netflix is successful with their model and proves that it works, maybe that will be the strong reason to do so.
So, if you want an HBO that looks like Netflix, support Netflix' efforts to look like HBO.
