Netflix CEO Reed Hastings Jokes HBO Is ‘Netflix B**ch’

Wednesday at an earnings call Netflix CEO Reed Hastings took a shot at HBO CEO Richard Plepler. During the earnings call, a JP Morgan analyst asked Hastings his thoughts on Netflix subscribers sharing passwords with one another. The analyst noted that a week ago HBO CEO, Richard Plepler, told BuzzFeed he didn’t mind when people shared their HBO Go Passwords and Hastings reply was, “So I guess Plepler ... doesn't mind me then sharing his [Netflix] account information. So it's plepler@hbo.com and his password is 'netflix b**ch.’"

It's not too clear whether Hastings said "Netflix's b**ch or Netflix b**ch," and it clearly doesn’t matter. The response from the analysts moderating the call first laughed at the comment, then he became silent. The joke by Hastings clearly shows the rivalry between the two companies and Netflix has made no secret they are gunning for HBO’s subscribers. Netflix's chief content officer, Ted Sarandos, told GQ in last year that "The goal ... is to become HBO faster than HBO can become us."

While HBO still has a huge subscriber base, Netflix has the most paying U.S. subscribers. According to The Verge website last October, Netflix earnings revealed that the company surpassed HBO in domestic subscribers and continued that same momentum in the company’s fourth quarter. However Netflix has a long way to go as far as original content is concerned. While Netflix has two award nominated original series HBO received 27 Emmy awards last year for their content.