New York is currently hosting Ignition 2017, a gathering of the biggest power players in television in a conference that focuses on innovation in the years to come. One stand out speaker in the massive pool of experts in the media industry (and Tucker Carlson) is HBO CEO Richard Plepler, who addressed the impending end of Game of Thrones with some fascinating insights into what’s to come for his industry-leading company.
Thanks to AdWeek’s Jason Lynch, who was in attendance, we now know quite a few interesting things about the next year of HBO programming. First off, the end of GoT is not the end of HBO, obviously. They have plenty of extremely high-quality shows in the works such as Westworld season two, True Detective season three, and it’s not like they aren’t developing five potential GoT spinoffs. Plepler made it known to those in attendance that not only is HBO continuing what they do best — make high-quality television in-line with their brand — but they’re aware of industry trends and plan on adjusting their budget accordingly.
With Hulu, Netflix, and Amazon Prime pumping money into original programming, Plepler knows HBO needs to match the competition, but that doesn’t necessarily mean throwing a bunch of cash at say, the Lord of the Rings television show. These are quite interesting little snippets here, and paint a picture of an impressive year even without Game of Thrones.
HBO is able to compete with Netflix, Amazon, Hulu, etc. because “our brand means something,” says CEO Richard Plepler, speaking now at #2017Ignition.
— Jason Lynch 🇺🇦 (@jasonlynch) November 29, 2017
“Obviously we have to pay competitively with the market, and we will,” says Plepler.
— Jason Lynch 🇺🇦 (@jasonlynch) November 29, 2017
It sounds like Plepler is saying that HBO will also increase the $$$ it is spending on content, though he didn’t give specifics.
— Jason Lynch 🇺🇦 (@jasonlynch) November 29, 2017
“I want us never to say no to what we have to say yes to,” says Plelper.
— Jason Lynch 🇺🇦 (@jasonlynch) November 29, 2017
Plepler says he doesn’t care about missing out on Lord of the Rings. “I’d rather own our IP,” he said, noting that they have five Game of Thrones prequels in development.
— Jason Lynch 🇺🇦 (@jasonlynch) November 29, 2017
Plepler is recalling his first TCA exec session, where he says he was asked repeatedly if HBO was over, post-Sopranos.
— Jason Lynch 🇺🇦 (@jasonlynch) November 29, 2017
Plepler said Westworld averaged 13 million viewers its first season, which was double Game of Thrones’ S1 numbers. Biggest S1 ratings in HBO history.
— Jason Lynch 🇺🇦 (@jasonlynch) November 29, 2017
Plelper says David E. Kelley has already written “the next iteration of #BigLittleLies” and that Nic Pizzolatto has written the first 5 scripts of #TrueDetective (which he says are terrific).
— Jason Lynch 🇺🇦 (@jasonlynch) November 29, 2017
“Anyone who tells you that we knew that Thrones was going to be Thrones is completely full of shit,” says Plepler.
— Jason Lynch 🇺🇦 (@jasonlynch) November 29, 2017
“If I’m Jeff Bezos, that’s Monopoly money,” says Plepler of Amazon spending a reported $250 million on Lord of the Rings rights.
— Jason Lynch 🇺🇦 (@jasonlynch) November 29, 2017
Plelper says rumors that AT&T would raise the price of HBO for competitors is ridiculous, bc it “would be so diseconomic for us.” If anything, he says, prices would go down, not up.
— Jason Lynch 🇺🇦 (@jasonlynch) November 29, 2017
