And a lot of their Netflix-branded shows are quite mediocre. I'd say they're not so much confident of their statistics about each individual show as they are about being able to promote their shows and get them viewed anyhow.
And on the average, it works out for them without the messy bits in the middle with ordering a pilot and having to somehow assess the quality of that pilot in regards to a full show.
It was good. As far as I understand, ATT got rid of most of the bosses responsible for nurturing that quality over quantity atmosphere and they are also now pumping out garbage.
A few months ago, I opened up the HBO Max app (which I only have access to due to it being bundled into my mobile phone plan), and this is the show that was being advertised:
https://www.hbomax.com/series/urn:hbo:series:GYN4ywAXUS1OLNg...
...you mean shows like the critically-acclaimed Mare of Easttown and Hacks and The White Lotus, all this year?
Nobody ever said HBO was exclusively prestige content. There isn't enough to fill multiple channels 24/7. But it's still the main factor that drives subscriptions.
Thanks for the recommendations though! They look interesting.
A useful contrast is with HBO. Yes HBO has a streaming service and app... but its competitive advantage is in prestige content people will pay $$$ for. Somehow HBO's management team is incredibly good at nurturing content in an artistic critically-acclaimed way, rather than tech-data-driven way.
For Netflix, tech is the primary differentiator and the content is table stakes. While for HBO it's reversed. It all depends on how a given company is choosing to compete in the same market.