HBO Chief Richard Plepler Makes Case for Big Providers to Offer Its Streaming Product

By Amol Sharma 

LAGUNA BEACH, Calif.--HBO Chief Executive Richard Plepler made a case for big broadband providers to market the company's new standalone streaming service, saying it would help both sides grow without compromising the traditional pay-television business.

Speaking at The Wall Street Journal's WSJD Live event here, Mr. Plepler noted that companies like Comcast Corp., Charter Communications Inc. and AT&T Inc. have millions of broadband-only households, and suggested it would be in their interest to offer HBO Now, the new streaming product, to target those audiences.

"Why wouldn't you want to take a product like HBO...and make it a part of your package, and share the revenue with us?" Mr. Plepler said. "We're having better conversations with some than others."

HBO Now offers the Time Warner Inc. premium cable channel's programming--from "Game of Thrones" to "Veep"--to customers who don't have pay-TV connections. The $15 a month streaming service is available through outlets like Apple Inc. and Roku Inc., but the biggest broadband companies so far haven't signed on as distributors.

Mr. Plepler downplayed the notion that cable companies should be concerned about HBO Now cannibalizing the hugely profitable pay TV business. He said less than 1% of customers who signed up for HBO Now were pay-TV customers.

"This is going to be a tremendous expansion of their reach as well," he said, referring to the broadband companies.

Mr. Plepler declined to comment on the number of subscribers HBO has signed up, but said the company is pleased so far.

Amid growing industry concerns about cord-cutting, Mr. Plepler said he believes the pay-TV industry is moving toward offering "skinny" bundles, smaller packages of channels. He said that outcome would benefit HBO, putting it in reach for more households. "What people really want are bundles that don't have 500 channels," he said.

Big TV channels will survive in the skinny bundle world, he said, while smaller networks that have been "riding on the backs" of larger sibling networks will struggle, he said.

Despite constant talk of a rivalry between Netflix Inc. and HBO, Mr. Plepler said the companies' services complement each other. "We overindex in their homes. They overindex in our homes," he said, adding that the households that tend to like both services are "entertainment junkies."

Mr. Plepler said the company has been trying to invest in content strategically, citing the company's deals to carry Sesame Street programming and the signing of sports commentator Bill Simmons away from ESPN.

He said Vice Media's new daily newscast will have "a little more HBO production patina to it" than the Vice documentaries HBO has carried thus far.

"I like the grit of that organization," he said of Vice. "I like their bravery. I like their storytelling."

Write to Amol Sharma at [e-mail]

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(END) Dow Jones Newswires

October 20, 2015 23:52 ET (03:52 GMT)

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