THB #10: Netflix, Chappelle & Constituencies

The 2013 Ted Sarandos utterance, “The goal is to become HBO faster than HBO can become us,” is a classic. There should be merchandise in the new Netflix/Walmart outlets with this sentence knitted, printed, and on temporary tattoos for all to remember.

Of course, the sentiment became untrue pretty quickly. Netflix was spending $300 million a year on original programming at the time he said it. It jumped to $1.15 billion in 2014. Then $1.8b, $2.9b - global expansion - $8b in 2017, $10b, $12.4b, and $15.3b in 2020.

Netflix’s ambition went from being HBO to being a replacement for multiple segments of what was being delivered into homes by cable and satellite. HBO+ComedyCentral+TheCW+Discovery+Lifetime+CourtTV+TheONetwork, etc, etc, etc.

(Note: This is all a little simplified… so please focus on the conceptual more than picking at the absolute detail. Happy to hear your variations.)

With this much broader portfolio, dwarfing HBO’s 20something series-a-year output, Netflix set out to be a home…