Bloys’ story

HBO content boss Casey Bloys on the challenges of matching his own high quality-control standards and launching a new streamer in a struggling SVoD market.

By Neil Batey

Launching a new streaming platform in an already oversaturated market rife with consolidation must be daunting – even if it’s backed by the most critically acclaimed premium cable network in the US.

That’s the challenge facing Casey Bloys, chairman and CEO of content at HBO and HBO Max. Since HBO parent company WarnerMedia’s merger with Discovery was confirmed last year, the industry has been eagerly awaiting the roll-out of a new OTT ‘mash-up’ offering, pooling the best content from HBO Max and Discovery+.

The as-yet-untitled streamer is due to launch this spring, with Bloys – speaking at the recent Series Mania event in Lille – adamant it must be profitable enough to secure HBO’s future for the next half-century.

“Historically, HBO has made a lot of money, which has allowed us to produce many great shows,” said Bloys. “So how do we make sure HBO is set for the next 50 years? There is a lot of upheaval in the market right now, so to make the transition from HBO being a cable TV company to streaming, we have to figure out how to make streaming a profitable business.

“The combined offering gives us a good way of doing that, because we want to build a product that appeals to as many people as possible. It’s kind of like replicating the idea of a cable bundle package – offering a wide array of programming for whatever mood the customers are in. Frankly, that’s what all streaming services are trying to figure out.”

Bloys emphasised the importance of integrating the complex international strategies of both sides of Warner Bros Discovery (WBD) – something he has been thrashing out with Discovery International boss Gerhard Zeiller. “The international market is very important,” Bloys said. “Gerhard and I, plus our teams, are trying to be co-ordinated and look at programme investment across the globe as one team. Where are we placing our bets and in which shows?

“HBO has produced all over the world, but previously there hasn’t been much contact regarding programming between our domestic and international departments; they’ve been very separate. Discovery also has a huge overseas operation, so bringing them together is one of the things we really want to do.”

HBO’s commitment outside of the US has been an ongoing concern since 1991, when it launched HBO Latin America as a partnership between Warner Bros and Omnivision, which was later joined by Sony and Disney. HBO Europe, based in Budapest, was rolled out that same year, with Singaporeheadquartered HBO Asia debuting in 1992.

The company’s programming is also distributed through third parties and is available across the globe through operators such as Fox Showcase in Australia, M-Net Binge in sub-Saharan Africa and Sky in European territories including Italy, Germany, the UK and Ireland. In total, HBO programming is sold in more than 155 countries and its branded services are available in more than 85 territories across Asia, Europe, Latin America and the Caribbean.

Of course, the streaming era has made non-Englishlanguage and localised content more popular than ever, but Bloys is somewhat sceptical that content can be created for a specific territory with the intention of creating a breakout international show.

“It’s very hard to engineer something that works in this market but also travels well internationally,” he said. “The US shows that travel tend to be tentpole content like House of the Dragon and The Last of Us, not comedies. Though there are exceptions to the rule, such as Call My Agent from France, which has done very well globally.

“A show can feel like HBO content for a lot of different reasons: is it a spectacle? Does it push boundaries? Is it thematically interesting? Is it weird and unlike anything that’s been seen before? Taking risks is part of our DNA.

Succession’s fourth and final season recently debuted on HBO shows and it’s like choosing your favourite kid. But I always cite Eastbound & Down, which was a hard comedy that everyone at HBO hated. I put my neck out and said, ‘No, this is good.’ Luckily for me, it turned out I was right.

“As a programmer dealing with different departments such as marketing, scheduling and publicity, sometimes you have to advocate for a show. That was a good lesson for me and very important for me in terms of the arc of my career.”

“My feeling is that if you commission a local show, you should service the market it’s intended for; then if it breaks out, that’s a bonus.”

In the US, subscribers access HBO content on the linear HBO channel, HBO on Demand, the HBO app and HBO Max (soon to be folded into the aforementioned combined VoD platform). The company also operates seven 24-hour networks on pay TV, including HBO Family, HBO Comedy and HBO Latino.

Although it’s been a household name in the US for decades, HBO only came to the wider world’s attention during the late 1990s and 2000s. That’s when the company coined the memorable marketing slogan “It’s not TV. It’s HBO” and backed up its braggadocio with critically acclaimed series such as mafia drama The Sopranos, Baltimore crime series The Wire, prison-set Oz, war epic Band of Brothers and edgy rom-com series Sex & The City, to name but a few.

That remarkable hot streak practically invented the prestige drama genre and contributed to birthing boxset binge culture – raising the bar for scripted higher than ever and creating the template for the kind of viewing experience subscribers would soon expect from the nascent streamers.

“The biggest source of stress and anxiety for me is to continue adding shows that are worthy of that legacy,” said Bloys, a CBS and WassStein Productions alumnus, who joined HBO in 2004. “Our biggest competition at HBO is our own record and how we can live up to it. People often ask me about my personal favourite HBO

It’s hard to believe that much advocacy was needed for HBO’s recent output, which has included hits such as allconquering fantasy Game of Thrones, novel adaptation Big Little Lies, period drama Chernobyl, Michaela Coel’s uncompromising I May Destroy You, a copro with the BBC, and universally lauded drama Succession, which is currently in its fourth and final season.

Looking ahead, there’ll be a third season of runaway hit The White Lotus; a new True Detective project starring Jodie Foster; a spin-off from last year’s The Batman movie titled The Penguin, in which Colin Farrell will reprise his role from the film; plus limited series The Palace, starring Kate Winslet. It’s an eye-catching slate full of big names that would be the envy of almost every buyer in the world and begs the question of how Bloys organises HBO’s commissioning strategy and release schedule, given the potential hits at his disposal. “I carry around my schedules for 2024 to 2026 and it’s a kind of rolling admissions process,” he said. “I see what’s on deck and what looks good, then try to get an idea a couple of years ahead of the type of content we’re looking for.

“I might think, ‘This show is a great candidate for late 2025,’ but then I’ll get a great script that changes my mind. So it’s kind of an iterative process. But by doing it that way, it makes me ask if we have too much of a particular genre, or if we need more of another, which in theory helps me get the most diverse mix possible.

“A show can feel like HBO content for a lot of different reasons: is it a spectacle? Does it push boundaries? Is it thematically interesting? Is it weird and unlike anything that’s been seen before? Taking risks is part of our DNA, but then we’ve always been a subscription service, so we have to think, ‘Will someone pay $15 a month for this?’

“The truth is you never know what’s going to resonate, but I’m confident we’ve got some good stuff going forward.”