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Reed Hastings says Netflix vs. HBO will be like the Yankees vs. the Red Sox

Reed Hastings says Netflix vs. HBO will be like the Yankees vs. the Red Sox

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But who is who?

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"The goal is to become HBO faster than HBO can become us." That was the way Netflix chief content officer Ted Sarandos laid out competition between the two companies at the start of 2013. Since then, HBO has launched a stand-alone streaming service, HBO Now, and Netflix has pushed even further into the kind of glossy, long-form dramas that HBO helped pioneer.

But Netflix CEO Reed Hastings has always maintained that there is plenty of space for both companies to succeed. He reiterated that sentiment today in an interview with The New York Times. "It will be like the Yankees and the Red Sox," Mr. Hastings said. "I predict HBO will do the best creative work of their lives in the next 10 years because they are on war footing. They haven’t really had a challenge for a long time, and now they do. It’s going to spur us both on to incredible work."

Netflix is planning to produce 320 hours of original content in 2015. Of course, not everything that Netflix makes is right for everyone. Hastings, for one, doesn't have the stomach for some of the company's high-profile new shows. Daredevil is too violent for him. "I can barely handle House of Cards," he admitted.