HBO reports “record viewership,” Netflix subscriber additions are down

It’s been a little over a year since HBO launched its streaming-only online platform HBO Now, and the network is declaring that investment, along with HBO Go and HBO On Demand, a success. On Monday, HBO sent around a press release saying that the digital platforms had been drivers of “record viewership,” especially with season six of Game of Thrones.

Netflix, on the other hand, was not so lucky. That staid bastion of cord-cutter viewership saw its “weakest subscriber expansion in two years,” according to the Wall Street Journal. Still, Netflix was able to keep content costs down enough to beat earnings expectations, the paper noted.

Both companies have threatened traditional pay-TV models in the past. Netflix was earliest on the scene, and HBO cut deals with its pay-TV partners to make a standalone HBO package a possibility.

HBO’s newer digital platforms have been met with enthusiasm from viewers. “These record audiences reflect the options we have built into our business model over the last few years,” HBO CEO and Chairman Richard Plepler said in a statement.

Read the full article at: arstechnica.com

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