HBO proud of its lack of digital strategy

Steve Safran November 18th, 2006

Got a call from Anne Becker at B&C last week, asking for a quote about HBO’s online strategy. Couldn’t recall that HBO had much of an online strategy. And they don’t. Turns out, they’re even proud of that. “There’s not a business model presenting itself today that will replicate the existing subscription model we have,” says HBO COO Bill Nelson, entirely missing the point. And HBO Chairman/CEO Chris Albrecht is downright condescending, saying “you won’t be seeing HBO throwing new episodes up on iPod,” apparently confusing the hardware with the online store. So it’s time for a Lost Remote ATTENTION HBO: It’s not about replicating your existing subscription model or “throwing” episodes onto iPods. It’s about new channels of distribution for your programming. You mostly show old movies. How long do you think there will be a demand for that? Your original shows are Bittorrented as soon as they are shown and are “thrown” onto iPods whether you want it or not. It’s fine if you can’t sort out a digital strategy. Just don’t be so proud about it.