Viewing a single comment thread. View all comments

austinrose7 t1_iu6eti5 wrote

Reply to comment by pm_me_reason_to_livx in When Netflix and HBO Turned on Each Other, They Forged a New Era of Television by 08830

Lol, the doomsday narrative around Zaslav has gotten stale. He’s already publicly committed to letting HBO continue being HBO by extending Casey Bloys’ contract being one of the very first things he did when he took over. He’s renewed everything that’s worth renewing (Succession, Barry, Industry, Euphoria, HOTD, Tokyo Vice, The Gilded Age, OFMD).

Frankly, everything he’s cancelled isn’t/wasn’t going to be great, maybe good at best (Raised by Wolves, Made for Love, Batgirl, Hack Abrams’ Demimonde and DC shit that inevitably would’ve been trash). Westworld could go either way. So if anything Zaslav actually signals a more aggressive quality over quantity approach, which is HBO’s brand.

Netflix on the other hand practically seems to be in competition with itself to see how much money they can piss away on big-budget productions that are horrendous and almost immediately get canceled. They’ve allowed their brand to become synonymous w/ low-quality garbage, even when they do release their fair share of very good (multiseason) shows (House of Cards, The Crown, Mindhunter, Black Mirror, Narcos, Ozark, Stranger Things, Squid Game, Dark/1899, Babylon Berlin, Kingdom, etc etc etc).

−19

pm_me_reason_to_livx t1_iu6gq5f wrote

My comment was about HBO Max the streaming service, not HBO the tv channel. HBO has always and will been fine.

> Frankly, everything he’s cancelled isn’t/wasn’t going to be great, maybe good at best

Streaming service is the content game. More content being released, the more subscribers the service attract, it's as simple as that. Doesn't matter if you think it's great, good or bad.

> Zaslav actually signals a more aggressive quality over quantity approach

There's no such thing. It's a streaming service. The term "quality over quantity" is just... not an actual thing. Those shows were removed or had their productions canceled because they wanted a tax break, not because they're taking a "quality over quantity" approach (which as I said is not actually a thing, the more content the better).

20

austinrose7 t1_iu6i5dn wrote

Lmao more content doesn’t literally = better, otherwise you could take that to the extreme and just upload random hour-long videos of paint drying on the studio walls or something. Netflix has clearly taken the quantity over quality approach and is now getting burned a bit for it, both in long-term brand image and short-term Wall Street metrics. Disney is now feeling the effects of this too where we’re starting to see that the average consumer no longer sees the “Marvel” and “Star Wars” brands as special and “event-worthy” bc of the 27 Disney+ series they release each year for each franchise.

Disney is blatantly gunning to win the streaming wars race, or at least be left standing with Netflix and 2-3 others when the “streaming bubble” inevitably pops in a couple years, so perhaps they have no choice. But other studios have recognized this and that’s why you don’t see Universal developing Jurassic World or F&F series for Peacock, for instance.

Apple TV+ is also clearly playing the “quality over quantity” approach, and yeah they’ve had to be patient bc they had no back catalog, but their patience (in not rushing out dogshit) is being rewarded with people finally coming around to seeing that almost all of their shows are at least good, maybe as many as 1/3 are brilliant, and their subscriber count is going up as a result.

−6

pm_me_reason_to_livx t1_iu6jlzn wrote

> Lmao more content doesn’t literally = better, otherwise you could take that to the extreme and just upload random hour-long videos of paint drying on the studio walls or something.

You just had to interpret it like this didn't you? 😂😂

> Netflix has clearly taken the quantity over quality approach

> Apple TV+ is also clearly playing the “quality over quantity” approach

lol you keep saying this buzz term, and I keep telling you this is not a thing bruh. This is just not how you gauge the success of a streaming service. Do you think it's just a coincidence that Netflix gained around 2 million subscribers this past quarter, the same quarter they released the most TV episodes they've ever released?

I can elaborate, but I'm currently watching something and my fingers are tired. lol. I wished you'd caught me on a day where I could debate this for hours.

9

PowRightInTheBalls t1_iu6ujhh wrote

And HBO has spent 20 years as the channel for premium content by giving a shit about what they attached their name to. Do you think it's a coincidence they were able to charge hundreds of dollars a year on top of cable costs and thrive while doing it? Would you spend $60 a month on Netflix? Because millions of Americans have been spending around that on HBO since the 90s.

2

pm_me_reason_to_livx t1_iu6vge2 wrote

Eeeeeehh... I was just talking about streaming services there man (as I said in the earlier reply). Comparing Netflix with the traditional HBO channel is pointless. There's just nothing to compare there. We're in a different time now. We consume content differently, content is made differently, and for the most part we even discuss content differently.

2

austinrose7 t1_iu6k0ux wrote

>I can elaborate, but I'm currently watching something and my fingers are tired. lol. I wished you'd caught me on a day where I could debate this for hours.

Bruh put your phone down when you’re watching something! (unless it’s trash lol)

−1

pm_me_reason_to_livx t1_iu6ktel wrote

nah. it's Tell Me Lies on Disney+. not trash, but definitely something you can watch with you phone in hand. lol.

0

Every_Repair973 t1_iuag41w wrote

I agree. But ket's be honest. Shutting down hbo lax is the dumbest idea ever

1

Bronco4bay t1_iu6tvi8 wrote

HoTD and Euphoria are the only shows in that list with any serious viewership.

−1

austinrose7 t1_iu6xz4u wrote

All of those shows get solid viewership for their budgets or you can be confident Zaslav would’ve axed them. The budget level is key, Westworld and Raised By Wolves are held to different standards than Succession (which had better ratings than either of the former this season lol).

5