As impressive as Netflix’s first quarterly earnings report of the year was, the company’s claims that HBO is in no way a threat may be a a bit too overconfident. While the company has always believed that HBO and Netflix were too different to really compete directly, that’s starting to change more and more every day, especially now that HBO has launched its own standalone streaming service.
Netflix released its earnings for the first quarter of 2015 today, and the numbers look good. The streaming giant added a record 4.9 million subscribers globally, bringing more viewers than expected to the service thanks in part to its growing international audience. Despite its apparent health, however, Netflix felt the need to make one thing clear: HBO is absolutely, totally, definitely not a threat—even with its new standalone streaming service HBO Now. “As we have said in the past, Netflix and HBO are not substitutes for one another given differing content,” CEO Reed Hastings and CFO David Wells wrote in a letter to investors. “We think both will continue to be successful in the marketplace, as illustrated by the fact that HBO has continued to grow globally and domestically as we have rapidly grown over the past 5 years.”
