HBO THROWS MONKEY WRENCH INTO NETFLIX’S ONLINE STRATEGY

Netflix’s hope of being able to offer relatively recent movies to its subscribers via online streaming rather than the U.S. Mail, has hit a snag, and its name is HBO. Last week Netflix completed a $900-million deal with the Epix cable channel for online rights to Paramount, Lionsgate, and MGM films. It had previously signed a deal with Liberty Media’s Starz channel for Disney and Sony movies. And it has put out feelers to HBO about buying rights to Warner Bros, 20th Century Fox, Universal, and, of course, HBO films — but HBO isn’t selling. It’s developing its own streaming service, HBO Go, which will be provided via Apple’s iTunes store. HBO Co-President Eric Kessler told Bloomberg News on Tuesday, “There is value in exclusivity.” Kessler’s plan is to make HBO’s movies available to subscribers to its cable TV/satellite channel. It now has 29 million of them.