You know how you and your roommates have all been using your parents’ HBO Go password to watch Game of Thrones for the past two seasons because you decided to start investing the cable money into your new online exotic animals business? Totally cool, says HBO’s CEO.
“It’s not that we’re unmindful of it, it just has no impact on the business,” HBO CEO Richard Plepler said. It is, in many ways, a “terrific marketing vehicle for the next generation of viewers,” he said, noting that it could potentially lead to more subscribers in the future.
“We’re in the business of creating addicts.” [Buzzfeed]
Between this and the time Jeff Bewkes — the CEO of HBO’s parent company, Time Warner — said setting piracy records was “better than an Emmy,” HBO is well on their way to becoming the Cool Dad of television networks. I half expect the network to send out a press release later today telling us that it’s cool if we all have a few beers with our friends after the dance as long as no one drives and everyone sleeps there.
Plepler also touched on the much-discussed, not-yet-available, direct-to-consumer model of HBO Go, which would allow consumers to access the product without a standard cable subscription, and in the process he gave one of my favorite business quotes in a long time.
The company is experimenting in the Nordic with direct-to-consumer HBO Go, which Plepler said was doing “very well.” When asked directly whether HBO Go was going direct to consumers, he said, “it’s all about arithmetic dude, it’s all about the math. The thing we are always thinking about is adding value.”
“It’s all about the arithmetic, dude.” Yup, that settles it. HBO is TV’s Cool Dad.
Source: Buzzfeed
