HBO chief mocks 'nonexistent raging war' with Netflix

HBO is assuring its new parent company isn’t going to change their high-quality programming brand — at least, not in any ways that are bad.

With AT&T taking over HBO, a New York Times report earlier this month listened in on a rather revealing-sounding company meeting where the network’s brass were prodded by Warner Media chief executive John Stankey to become “something bigger and broader” a la Netflix. That’s prompted plenty of hand-wringing in the media that the network would try to morph into a Netflix wannabe.

“There are no plans to dilute the HBO programming brand,” HBO’s programming president Casey Bloys told reporters at the Television Critics Association’s press tour. “What I heard was somebody talking about investing in our programming — which is music to our ears. Nobody has talked about diluting our brand or increasing our volume to the point where we lose quality control. No one is asking us to take pitches of a Love Boat reboot.”

Recently the HBO vs. Netflix narrative surged when the deep-pocketed streaming service received more Emmy nominations than HBO for the first time.

Bloys said Netflix’s Emmy nominations are “a great honor and they earned it, they should be proud,” then added: “Every time I do an interview and Netflix comes up, it gets put through the filter of a nonexistent raging war between HBO and Netflix.

More to come…