Through 2017, Walmart earned more than $500 billion in total revenue. The company employs over 2 million people around the world. Without a doubt, it’s the biggest retail chain around. Even with those staggering numbers, there’s no entertainment company in the world that wants to be compared to them. And according to the chairman and CEO of AT&T, Randall Stephenson, Netflix is the “Walmart” of streaming services.
Stephenson, whose AT&T recently closed out a deal to acquire WarnerMedia, which subsequently owns HBO, was comparing Netflix to his premiere cable network when he made the analogy. He likened Netflix to Walmart, he says, due to its incredibly spending power and size. He then coupled that by saying (via Variety), “HBO is a very unique brand. I mean what I said, it is the Tiffany’s of media and entertainment.”
Now, sure, he wants people to believe he’s only comparing spending power and size when drawing the analogies between Walmart and Tiffany. But what he was also doing is drawing the quality comparison, saying that Walmart (Netflix) is the one stop shop for lower-quality goods (content), whereas Tiffany (HBO) is where the customers go for the highest quality goods. So yeah, not so flattering to the biggest subscription streaming service in the world.
That being said, Stephenson does think that HBO will have to take a page out of Netflix’s playbook to help grow the cable network’s streaming footprint, by investing in a significant amount of new content. He quickly added, “We’re not talking about Netflix-like investments.”
The hope is that HBO will not just be known as the place for high-quality programming…on Sunday night. Instead, the network will feature more original content that airs during the week. He says that the plan is “to make sure we have a more robust cycle of content coming throughout the year – and throughout the week.”
The strategy for HBO is “more about filling out the schedule,” Stephenson said.
So maybe, by filling out the schedule, HBO will turn into the Target of streaming services?
