HBO Shakes Up Digital Team To Help It Keep Up With “Ongoing technology-based disruption of media”

A year ago we saw HBO take former Xbox executive Otto Berkes away from Microsoft’s hands, and name him the Senior Vice President of Consumer Technology. His role involved developing the companies HBO Go and MAX Go streaming platforms, two apps that have help the premium subscription channel cater for a growing online audience. HBO’s promotion was clear, whilst its not going to cut the cord on cable completely, its awareness of the next-gen forms of content consumption such as Netflix is important, as they are the ones  striving to take away the high-quality TV programming trait without any need to purchase a cable subscription.

Berkes is wasting no time in shaking up HBO’s digital team according to AllThingsD. In a memo going out to HBO employees, Berkes says that “HBO Go has established HBO as a company that understands the value of technology as a tool for delivering great content and experiences to consumers.” The app, that is available on nearly every platform that Netflix is on, along with HBO.com, has risen to the top of HBO’s priorities; something the company is keen on iterating.

HBO’s promotion was clear, whilst its not going to cut the cord on cable completely, its awareness of the next-gen forms of content consumption such as Netflix is important

“Over the course of the next several years, our mission is to build best-in-class technology execution capabilities,” says Berkes, going on to say that this “mission” is central to ensuring that HBO has the capacity to adapt their business through “ongoing technology-based disruption of media and to support new areas of growth.”

He goes on to detail the Digital Product teams restructuring, telling us about the departure of Hans Deutmayer, who worked for eleven years at the company working on the teams apps for smartphones, tablets, consoles and other online content consumption boxes. Berkes says that the restructuring of such a backbone part of the company now, will help ”create technologies that unlock the full potential of software in the digital content area.”

So we aren’t seeing HBO completely depart from the cable companies, but they have a clear idea on what the future of content consumption looks like. Netflix may be trying to beat HBO at their game, but HBO are trying equally as hard to return the favour.

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