HBO and Netflix have been engaged in a friendly rivalry for a number of months, as Netflix has begun to act more like a traditional network with original programming and HBO’s online platform, HBO Go, drawing speculation that it might soon be available directly to people who don’t subscribe to the premium cable channel.
The back-and-forth between the two companies even prompted Netflix CEO Reed Hastings to joke that HBO Programming President Michael Lombardo’s HBO Go password is “Netflix Bitch.”
During his appearance at TheGrill at Montage Beverly Hills on Monday, Time Warner Chairman and CEO Jeff Bewkes danced around the rivarly, saying that he didn’t wish he owned Netflix, because Time Warner already has its own equivalent.