Netflix isn't interested in (just) becoming HBO anymore
- Netflix co-CEO Ted Sarandos says the company wants to be "equal parts HBO and FX and AMC" and more.
- In 2013, he said that Netflix's goal was "to become HBO faster than HBO can become us."
It's no surprise that Netflix wants to attract as many consumers with as much content as possible — and now company executives have laid out more specifically what that means.
In an interview with The New Yorker, co-CEO Ted Sarandos said that Netflix aims to be "equal parts HBO and FX and AMC and Lifetime and Bravo and E! and Comedy Central."
Bela Bajaria, Netflix's head of global TV, put it more bluntly: The company wants to "replace all television."
These recent comments highlight the evolution of Netflix over the last decade. When it first broke into original programming, Netflix went after the sort of prestige TV that HBO is known for; one of the earliest examples is scooping up "House of Cards," which HBO was also interested in.
In 2013, the same year the show premiered, Sarandos told GQ, "The goal is to become HBO faster than HBO can become us."
Now, Netflix's goal better reflects how the streaming landscape has shifted. With media companies like Disney and Paramount, and tech giants like Amazon and Apple building their own streaming businesses, it's necessary to have a wide array of content to attract and keep subscribers.
Netflix faced challenges last year, losing subscribers in each of the first two quarters of 2022. It bounced back by the end of the year and has a massive hit right now in its series "Wednesday," but is still taking steps to address losses, such as a new ad-supported plan and cracking down on password sharing.
In his interview with The New Yorker, Sarandos that he doesn't want Netflix to get "bottlenecked behind one sensibility."
The company pumps out more original movies and TV shows than any other streaming service, as it doesn't have the back catalog of Disney or the other business sectors of Apple to fall back on. It spent $17 billion on content in both 2021 and 2022, and is expected to spend a similar number this year.
It's not just traditional movies and TV, though. Netflix now offers mobile video games and recently debuted new workout videos from Nike Training Club, for instance.
At a time when it's not just competing with other streamers but also TikTok and YouTube, it seems that Netflix not only wants to be all TV — it wants to be an all-in-one option for content consumption.