Netflix exec: HBO would have many more customers if it sold online-only subscriptions

HBO has long said that it has no plans to sell subscriptions directly over the Internet, but Netflix CFO David Wells suggested that the cable channel should rethink that decision.

“We believe that if they were direct-to-consumer, there would be materially more subscribers that would pay for it in the US,” Wells said. Wells made that suggestion when asked about Netflix’s addressable domestic market, which he said was between 60 million and 90 million subscribers — a number that is just slightly below the roughly 100 million households that pay for TV services in the US. Netflix has made these estimates before — but this was the first time that an executive suggested that these numbers could be within reach for HBO as well if it decided to embrace standalone subscriptions. However, HBO has consistently said that it is not interested in that kind of distribution model.