Considering all of the boneheaded and tone deaf moves that Netflix has made this year, CEO Reed Hastings is rather astute in his assessment of the competitive landscape for streaming video. While much of the tech press (which IMO is even more boneheaded and tone deaf) has focused on how Netflix stacks up against Amazon and Blockbuster/Dish Network's subscription streaming services, HBO very well could become Netflix's biggest competitor in the years ahead. I wrote about this a few months ago, and it seems that Netflix sees things the same way.

As new competitor emerges, Netflix CEO says HBO Go is the true threat - San Jose Mercury News

While Amazon and Blockbuster are busy ramping up their video streaming services, Netflix has been losing money because of subscription cancellations and rapidly rising rights fees. Hastings is actually unconcerned about Amazon and Blockbuster, because he estimates that competing video streaming providers will become similarly saddled down by high content costs. He estimates that it will cost $1 billion for competitors to match Netflix's offerings.

HBO rolled out their online platform, HBO Go, last year. I use it, and it's great. Apparently, HBO subscribers that use HBO Go also wind up increasing their viewing time on the HBO broadcast networks. So, the online platform has also succeeded in its goal of retaining HBO subscribers.

Even though at any given time, HBO Go's selection of about 600 movies pales in comparison with the thousands found on Netflix, the real trump card up HBO's sleeve is their original programs. These programs are not available on any other streaming source.

For now, accessing HBO Go still requires an HBO subscription, which in turn requires a pay TV subscription. No word on when or if HBO will offer streaming access as a standalone option.

Reed Hastings stated that "HBO is becoming more Netflix-like and we're becoming more HBO-like.... They are not competing directly with us, but they can." Indeed, with Netflix ready to debut its own original drama series, House of Cards, next year, they are already beginning to parallel HBO's strategy of attracting and retaining subscribers by developing their own content.

And in turn, HBO has stated that they are working to add their HBO Go app to consoles and set top boxes. This potentially sets them up to go with standalone streaming subscriptions in the future, at which time they truly would be a potential competitor with Netflix.