Reed Hastings: Netflix Will One Day Be Part Of Your Cable Bundle

Netflix is usually cast as a cable competitor, but CEO Reed Hastings said he thinks cable will eventually become an on-demand internet platform, and Netflix just another programming provider that cable can use to sell its services.

“It’s not in the short term, but it’s in the natural direction for us in the long term,” said Hastings. “Many (cable service providers) would like to have a competitor to HBO, and they would bid us off of HBO.” Hastings continued to identify HBO’s Go on-demand service—as well as the cable industry’s larger TV Everywhere model—as Netflix’s top competition, and he continued to downplay the emergence of what he called “copycat” competition in the video streaming business from companies like Amazon.