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Netflix’s gargantuan $7 billion investment in content doesn’t bother HBO CEO Richard Plepler, the executive told CNBC on Tuesday. “More is not better, only better is better,” he insisted during an appearance on “Power Lunch”.
Netflix, which has over 100 million subscribers, recently announced that it would be putting $6 to $7 billion towards content in 2017 alone, with plans to spend an additional $10 billion or so in the next few years, according to CNN.
HBO following a different strategy
While some would argue that this is bad news for HBO, one of Netflix’s largest competitors, Plepler remains confident that his quality-over-quantity strategy will prove more effective in the long run.
The company only invested some $2 billion in content last year, but nonetheless is home to some of today’s pop culture hits, including “Game of Thrones,” the most popular show in history.
"It is very hard to create outstanding content, and we think we have a good record of doing that very very well. We're not trying to create the most, we're trying to create excellence across our categories -- and we have more than the resources necessary to do that,” Plepler told CNBC.
Netflix’s investment in native content comes as many of its old partners are starting to view the service as a competitor, rather than a useful outlet to peddle their own content. Disney, one of the world’s most prolific creators of commercial content, recently announced it would be pulling its content from Netflix to launch its own streaming service in 2019.
HBO isn’t just facing increased competition from Netflix, however. Other content providers are upping their investment game as well, such as Hulu, which recently announced that it plans to invest $2.5 billion in content-creation in 2017, according to TechCrunch.
Other companies desperate to vacuum up today’s streaming market are investing more heavily, too.
Amazon Prime Video’s budget is close to $5 billion, and other tech giants like Apple are eyeing billion-dollar investments of their own in streaming services as well. The fact that some VPNs still unblock Netflix means they’re tapping into a small slice of a huge global market.
Streaming vs piracy
While HBO may not be prepared to match the top-dollar sums of many of its competitors, Plepler remained confident that its focus on high-quality content would prove worthwhile.
"Some [content] is good…Some is not so good. I think what our brand reflects and has reflected is that when you come inside HBO you will see something that stands for quality,” Plepler told CNBC.
HBO also faces a unique challenge with its own native content; its premier show, “Game of Thrones,” draws millions of illegal downloads each season alongside its faithful fans. The seventh season of the hit show alone was pirated over one billion times, according to Entertainment Weekly.
HBO and other streaming services have been hurt so badly by piracy, they’ve opted to band together to fight the problem while continuing to compete in the marketplace. According to Engadget, over 30 content creators like Netflix, HBO, and Amazon have set aside their differences to fight piracy together.
