From The Sopranos to Succession: HBOs twenty-year strategy to maintain cinematic television
Ask anyone who they think is the most influential player in the streaming wars and they are likely to respond with the obvious answer: Netflix. Evolving from a small media distribution company barely large enough to pose a threat to Blockbuster to becoming one of the most influential media technology companies in Silicon Valley, Netflix’s effect on the distribution industry is undeniable. But although they may be the most well-known television distributor in the modern era, especially since making the preliminary switch from physical DVD subscriptions to online streaming subscriptions in 2007, Netflix is too young to be identified as a timeless icon in the space. Rather, Netflix followed the lead of competitor and television producer Home Box Office for many years before adapting to a new and successful strategy of their own in the late 2010s. Now, Netflix has finally developed their own identity, a strategy based on creating a diversified portfolio of vast content fueled by social media and technology. But they should not become brash. Home Box Office has been evolving over the course of a twenty-year plan, a strategy that bests Netflix in terms of both distribution and quality, but that is often remembered only for the latter.
Home Box Office, or HBO, has consistently redefined the television space in their own terms since before Netflix existed and since streaming became the consumption norm. HBO’s first major contribution to the broader industry of television was using a revolutionary method to identify and fund content that could rival film in terms of quality, a method that replicated specific films that had already proven successful. But HBO’s accomplishments over the last twenty years are not limited to prophesying what audiences would like to see by repurposing what they have already enjoyed. HBO has also disrupted new streaming habits like binge-watching put into motion by competitors like Netflix, coaxing audiences back into weekly television viewings with higher quality and greater convenience than ever before. HBO is truly successful because of the way it has meshed content with packaging, making television entertaining and easily accessible. Their strategy began with The Sopranos back in 1999, but that DNA threads all the way through to Succession today.
When HBO was founded in 1972, it immediately established itself as a key player in the amalgamation of cable television and Hollywood film. It was already known as a premium network, but it was distributing film, not TV, airing uncut, commercial free movies licensed from top studios on its channel. The first of these, Sometimes a Great Notion (1971), premiered on HBO less than 2 years after its theatrical release. Eventually, the company helped to fund new films in exchange for exclusive broadcasting rights. HBO was the top channel for watching films on the television screen at home, but it was also one of the first to standardize premium fees in exchange for a premium entertainment experience.[1]
Soon, HBO noticed an opportunity that would end their relying on licensing to keep their operation running. The decision to start producing their own exclusive programming seems obvious in retrospect, but the reality is that this type of series had never existed before. Film and television had been seen as complements since the 1950s, but they had never really been meshed together to foster a new type of entertainment entirely. For this reason, HBO had to play it safe. They had to provide entertainment that would move forward quickly enough so as to keep audiences engaged, but slow enough that it could be enjoyed over a period of weeks so that they could hold on to their subscribers for longer. The safest bet was to adapt material that had already been successful before.
When The Sopranos first premiered in 1999, the comparisons came immediately. From Francis Ford Coppola’s The Godfather trilogy in the 1970s to Martin Scorsese’s Goodfellas and Casino in the 1990s, gangster films had ruled Hollywood for years. These key models had not only been critical successes, but their themes also aligned with the gritty, dark, adult tone that HBO had previously established with their licensed programming. But what was it about the Italian gangster that America found so appealing, and would that appeal transition to the home screen?
Coppola argues that the appeal is not so much the Italian Mafia itself, but a broader interest in a classic American criminal. “America has always had an interest in outlaws,” said the director in a 2003 interview. “…We liked to see cowboy movies or learn about Jesse James, or when we were kids and played pirates … There's always a romantic fascination with the idea of people who don't take those limitations and kind of do what they want.”[2] While Coppola seems to imply that the grand appeal of the Mafia specifically was merely a factor of luck, it is worth pointing to the second film in his Godfather trilogy to identify a more concrete reason. This film, the most critically appraised of the three, focuses on a dual narrative that takes place over two historical periods. The young Vito Corleone (Robert DeNiro) builds his New York empire from scratch in the early 20th century while his son Michael (Al Pacino) slowly destroys that same empire many years later. The story is still one of outlaws, but it is also enriched with fundamental values of the 20thcentury, of the American dream; with enough hard work, even humble beginnings can lead to family, prosperity, and success. Coppola agrees that those who welcome the American dream will be rewarded, showcasing some of the legitimate business endeavors that Vito goes through with to kickstart his empire, but he also emphasizes the penalties that come with crime, penalties that soak family and empire with blood and tragedy.
The Sopranos took the same underlying themes of films like The Godfather that had proven so successful among Americans and toned them down for TV by breaking them up into easily consumable fragments. Although the overall storyline was made up of a longer total running time, there was less violence and a slower pacing. The series still had elements of a crime drama, complete with mobster politics, restaurant gatherings, and shoot-outs, but with a more relatable side as well. Characters’ accents were made less Italian and more reminiscent of suburban America. The struggles of Tony Soprano (James Gandolfini) were not only criminal, but just as often personal; Tony’s primary task is still to run the Mafiosi, but he makes time to visit his psychiatrist too. Mysteries and revenge arcs were slow burns, made to sustain over many hours of programming and many weeks of anticipation. In other words, rather than creating a perfect copy of the Vito Corleone of the 1970s, HBO created a character more relatable to a middle-class American audience and more suitable to the laidback, extended programming of Sunday night television.
Ten years later, as The Sopranos and other premium programs were finishing their runs on traditional television, a new type of distribution method was making itself known. In 2007, Netflix began their own streaming service by licensing content from Starz, recreating what HBO had done with film in the 70s for cable, but this time for the internet. In 2010, HBO GO attempted to make the HBO catalogue similarly accessible by providing premium cable subscription members with an app that could access content anywhere, but Netflix had arrived at the party first. HBO GO was a necessary step in moving towards the online space, but it was not a method of acquiring new subscribers. The move was largely reactionary. It did little to move existing Netflix subscribers to HBO and it took place in a market increasingly saturated with other streaming channels that also did not require cable subscriptions, like Hulu and Prime Video. In anticipation of an influx of new television series, each exclusive to its respective network, HBO temporarily took a step back from distribution innovation and fell back on what had made it so successful before: quality television.
Game of Thrones began an era that would define modern HBO, lead to the creation of HBO NOW, and influence Netflix to create their own exclusive premium programming, even if no one anticipated these things at the premiere. The property was certainly a riskier one to adapt to television than anything HBO had done before. The Sopranos had had a wide slate of film history to fall back on for inspiration and an original story that could be tailored and tapered however the writers saw fit. Game of Thrones had only Peter Jackson’s The Lord of the Rings films for financial confidence and was restricted to George R.R. Martin’s unfinished and unknown book series when writing for the screen. There was both less broad material to take inspiration from and more source material, making for a challenging and high-risk series at the time. HBO hoped to capitalize on the growing market visibility of the fantasy genre at the time, but beautiful landscapes, special effects, and complex costumes make fantasy expensive and risky to shoot and produce.
Game of Thrones was more complicated than any other series the network had done before. A plethora of arcs threaded throughout multiple seasons with new characters being introduced almost weekly, each season only got more complicated in terms of story, fight scenes, and overall scope. Audiences had to focus during episodes and interpret events among each other and other book readers later to understand what was going on. Once the show began to see success, funding and story threads increased significantly. Later seasons cost at least 2.5x what the first had, budgets reminiscent of films:
“The $15 million-plus price tag is due in part to a shooting schedule that more resembles that of a feature film than an episodic series. But “Thrones” is an anomaly. When it debuted, its price tag was in line with what HBO typically spends on dramas, around $6 million or so. But as the program grew into a four-continent behemoth with multiple production units shooting at once, it also began to generate dozens of healthy revenue streams for HBO.”[3]
The expansion into multicontinental shooting schedules is another evolution of HBO’s commitment to showcasing high quality television to viewers, as well as its viewers’ commitment to engage with their show as intensely as possible. Unlike The Sopranos, which was shot largely in New Jersey and New York, Game of Thrones was shot across Croatia, Spain, Iceland, Malta, and Northern Ireland. In order to connect with the characters and set pieces on a deeper level, fans not only created fan fictions and memes across Twitter and Tumblr but set out on pilgrimages to engage with the physical locations where Game of Thrones took place. “Dozens of tours and attractions offer to take them to the 'real' Winterfell (Castle Ward), Kingsroad (the Dark Hedges) or Vaes Dothrak (the Mourne Mountains),” a testament to the longevity and influence of the series as a whole.”[4]
At first, HBO’s competition in the 2010s came from similarly quality Netflix properties like House of Cards or Orange is the New Black, shows that emulated the pattern of cinematic television that HBO had first begun. Although audiences binging a nuanced show like House of Cards on Netflix would consume it much faster than audiences watching Game of Thrones over a period of weeks on HBO, discussions remained drawn out for both shows. Audiences would watch new series around the same time and discuss their nuances with one another over the following weeks. The few shows produced by Netflix were noticeably recommended to subscribers in-platform, and there were few enough quality shows that everyone had the time and attention spans to follow them communally. But over the last few years, Netflix has changed those habits, creating its own unique identity and moving away from the strategies that they originally borrowed from HBO. While HBO continues to focus on a few quality programs, Netflix is determined to diversify their portfolio as much as possible with a pipeline of mediocre content. Yes, they have seen plenty of hits like Master of None (2015), Stranger Things (2016), and the recent Russian Doll (2019), but that is the benefit of any diversified portfolio. For every number of quality shows Netflix creates, there is a plethora of less interesting content to sort through first.
Three of the most popular Netflix shows last month were vastly different and quickly consumed but hovered around just 70% to 80% on Rotten Tomatoes: Love is Blind, Tiger King, and Extraction. A reality dating series, a documentary limited series, and an action film, none of these pieces were related to each other except in the way that Netflix marketed them to subscribers. Individual partiality for these shows and films is irrelevant if the public is not likely to remember them. Excluding the few hits like Stranger Things, Netflix content gains and loses traction among viewers fast. In the long-term, they do not hold value.
As they propel more and more exclusive content down a pipeline of risky investments, Netflix simulates meaningful social engagement and, ironically, gives audiences a false sense of user choice hidden amidst an array of highly tailored options. An aggressive algorithm chooses a few shows with a high likelihood of success via data that the casual viewer will never see. Then, a series of meme-ified screengrabs and video clips posted to official Netflix social accounts extends the lifeline of each high potential series for a few hours past the total time it takes to binge it. A recent Netflix Twitter thread highlights the new releases of the week, encouraging prospective audiences to consume and discuss them as quickly as possible before the next week’s updated set of trendy options.[5] Meanwhile, long-running Netflix shows with cult followings and critical acclaims are cancelled. One Day at a Time, for example, a family sitcom with a 99% on Rotten Tomatoes, was cancelled by Netflix, citing poor ratings. After fans organized a massive social media campaign to try and save the show, it was revived by Pop TV instead, a small cable channel owned by CBS.[6]
The newly redesigned Netflix interface takes these aggressive tactics to another level, promoting a highly volatile list of the top ten films and series currently available, encouraging viewers to stay up to speed with whatever is most popular in the moment, lest they are permanently left behind by the agit-prop train of the future. All this is to say that while Netflix was briefly in the television business – aspiring to be HBO – at the start of the decade, the company has now pivoted back into the distribution business, collecting data and building a diversified portfolio of easily consumable television funded by increasing subscriber fees. More than ever, Netflix has positioned itself as a technocratic take on the traditional cable network.
Rather than combat Netflix’s recent strategy of oversaturating the market with content that can succeed in the short-term via social media and binge-able viewing, HBO has maintained its roots in premium quality television by emulating past success stories while also driving forward an evolved episodic structure that encourages traditional once-a-week viewings and is easily accessible to a plethora of audiences. They have taken aspects of both The Sopranos and Game of Thrones and molded them together to form Succession, a show that reflects contemporary values and that encourages audiences to experience it together over time. Simultaneously, they have made this show easy to access for traditional cable-subscribers using cable, younger cable subscribers using the HBO GO extension, and non-cable subscribers streaming on smartphones, tablets, laptops, and smart TVs via 2015s HBO NOW app.
2018’s Succession focuses on the conflicts between various members of an eccentric and dysfunctional family that owns a mass media conglomerate. When heir Logan Roy decides that it may be time for retirement, he struggles to determine who to hand the reins since every member of his extended family is a greedy, snappish backstabber with their own hidden frailties. The show draws from the hybrid drama of both The Sopranos and Game of Thrones with its intertwining political and familial soap opera, this time with a contemporary framing and a somber Shakespearean tone. Rather than creating conflict among a Mafia empire or a continent of royal families, Succession reveals a Murdoch-like company corrupted by shareholders, hedge fund managers, and nepotism. If gangsters and dragons reflected taboo desires to take part in casinos, assassinations, medieval battles, and dark magic, Succession is a contemporary parallel, where power is only achievable by succumbing to a deplorable corporate world.
Like the decision to greenlight previous HBO series, the reasons for focusing on the corporate world comes from Americans’ tendency to “worship workism” as well as recent filmic success.[7] However, this time HBO was able to broaden the scope of media that they evaluated beyond just films due to the increase in cinematic television. Films like Oliver Stone’s Wall Street, Martin Scorsese’s The Wolf of Wall Street, and Adam McKay’s The Big Short still paved inspiration for a series focused loosely on the criminals of finance and business. But Showtime’s Billions had demonstrated that audiences also wanted a glimpse of the ultra-wealthy’s lives, both to gasp and to scoff at:
“Truth isn’t always flattering. Unlike the wealth-porn TV of earlier decades — “Dynasty,” “Dallas,” “Gossip Girl” — these shows address a cultural moment in which many of us are infatuated with extreme wealth and also disturbed by it. Dramas with glints of dark comedy, “Succession” and “Billions” aren’t exactly aspirational. The camera finds every under-eye circle, amplifies each impersonal office. Even that penthouse looks almost ugly from certain angles.”[8]
Succession works not just because of the aesthetic of cash. HBO carefully mirrored various traits of previous media to create the optimal genre mix. First, the writing assumes that the audiences are looking to be challenged. For The Big Short (and the Succession pilot, which he also directed), Adam McKay uses fast-pacing and snappy dialogue to move the story forward quickly, but he also inserts comedic and informative scenes into the diegesis that explain concepts like shorting stocks and bear hugs. Succession doesn’t attempt to portray itself as highbrow, but it does make a point of appearing realistically corporate while still being entertaining.
Second, Succession makes use of an entire cast of characters that the audience simultaneously idolizes and despises, just like the Jordan Belforts and the Michael Burrys before it. Game of Thrones had characters like John Snow who were canonically without fault, but Succession spares no time enlightening the audience of every flaw these characters possess, not to draw you away, but to drag you in. As critic Matt Zoller Seitz puts it,
“The vast majority of shows about rich and/or antiheroic characters encourage viewers to feel sympathy for hollowed-out, thoroughly corrupt people like these, via the simple alchemy of watching them each week and identifying with them over time. But the acid-bath viciousness of Succession prevents the usual mechanism of identification from snapping into place.”[9]
People are fascinated by the ivory tower characters and the horrible things they can do with their power, and that fascination seeps into their discussions of the show. Although the pace of each episode is slowed down for television, Adam McKay’s snappy dialogue is consistent throughout Succession. Conversations that constantly turn one character against another ensure that viewers are locked to the screen in front of them, not the one in their back pocket. Like The Sopranos and Game of Thrones, Succession is easily discussed with coworkers, family, and social media acquaintances in-person and over the internet. One of the most fascinating ways in which it sparks conversation is in its ability to detach you from the billionaire characters onscreen, to make you figure them out.
Finally, Succession takes a step back from other finance media by marking itself as distinctly apolitical, lest it offend or segment any portion of modern viewers. Remember, HBO is strategically targeting a massive prospective audience by “broadcasting” Succession across cable, HBO GO, and HBO NOW. By drawing parallels between Fox News and the fictionalized station of the show, Succession allows audiences to make their own connections without stating any of its own opinions.
While the content and quality of Succession is appealing to the everyday American, the show also takes steps to refortify HBO’s once-a-week distribution strategy and to encourage repeat viewings by means of the structure. Each episode establishes a story that is extremely self-contained, even if elements of the story will make up a season-long serialization. Every episode is designated by a grandiose set piece that acts as both character and central location: a therapy session in a $500 million ranch home in Southwest America, a wedding in a British castle, a mystery on a superyacht in the Adriatic. Game of Thrones featured occasional set piece episodes like the highly anticipated Battle of the Bastards from 2016. On Succession, every episode is a set piece, personalizing individual episodes and summoning audiences back to the feeling of watching a feature length film. In fact, each episode is so expertly planned to minimize costs and maximize flair that the producers had to hire wealth consultants to determine exactly which storylines were in the realms of reality and what items could be rented to carry them out.[10]
Although HBO ensures that audiences can watch Succession on any screen they like, most audiences are more likely to watch shows shot like this on the largest screen possible. An additional industry factor that raises that likelihood is the increased penetration rate of televisions that support 4K HDR outputs. As of 2018, 31 percent of US households made use of 4K Ultra HDTV products, and in 2019 108 million more units were sold.[11] [12] Consumers have slowly adapted back to watching television in their homes, and with the COVID-19 catastrophe that number will surely increase. Watching cinematic content like Succession on traditional televisions was always an option, but due to a mix of self-contained set pieces, big-budget television, as well as global factors, it is starting to become the optimal one. With its loose ties to modern corporations, tightly knit writing and characters, ambitious shooting locations, high critical ratings, and a consistent Sunday night schedule, Succession is at the forefront of all conversations Monday morning and throughout the week.
HBO has developed a formula for success that identifies and greenlights series based on previously successful properties and distributes them weekly to be consumed thoroughly across all platforms. Succession is the latest example of a high-quality show that maintains HBO’s adult brand and has the potential to be long-lasting. The Sopranos is often viewed as a lesser successor to The Godfather merely because it was created for television instead of for the theater. Twenty years later, Succession will have the opposite effect on the films it was inspired by. The show first aired on HBO in the summer of 2018 and a second season premiered in August of 2019, garnering over half a million viewers every Sunday night.[13] Just after its second season began, Succession was renewed for a third. HBO Executive Vice President chimed in to express her excitement for the show’s continuation, making sure to use buzzwords like politics and media without drawing attention to any real political or business connections, a strategy that has worked well for Succession so far: “We cannot wait to see how the complex characters that Jesse Armstrong has created continue to navigate this captivating, ruthless world of the uber-rich. In today’s world where the intersection of politics and media is increasingly prevalent, SUCCESSION presents an especially piercing look behind the curtain of this elite, influential, and cutthroat community.”[14]
For years, Netflix followed HBOs forays into novel broadcasting and cinematic television before finally creating their own innovations. They saturated the market with highly consumable television cleverly fueled by meme culture and an intricate yet accessible online platform. While there is something to be said for Netflix’s unprecedented technological advancements, it is unfair not to recognize HBO for so diligently evolving a strategic plan that has influenced competitors like Netflix and that has been proven successful since HBO’s first transition into television production in 1999. HBO has consistently dominated both the film/television space and the television/internet space. By sticking to a method that was successful for The Sopranos and reinventing it in the modern age for Succession, HBO reminded audiences that whether they used cable or the internet, they wanted to be in their home theaters for television every Sunday night.
Citations
[1] Gregersen, Erik. “HBO.” Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., 19 Mar. 2020, www.britannica.com/topic/HBO.
[2] Shanken, Marvin R. “The Godfather Speaks.” Cigar Aficionado, Cigar Aficionado, 15 Aug. 2017, www.cigaraficionado.com/article/the-godfather-speaks-6147.
[3] Ryan, Maureen. “TV Series Budgets Hit the Breaking Point as Costs Skyrocket in Peak TV Era.” Variety, Variety, 15 Mar. 2018, variety.com/2017/tv/news/tv-series-budgets-costs-rising-peak-tv-1202570158/
[4] "From 'Lord Of The Rings' to 'Game Of Thrones': the rise of film tourism". Screen International, March 18, 2017 Saturday. advance-lexis-com.proxy.libraries.smu.edu/api/document?collection=news&id=urn:contentItem:5N41-WCF1-JDSX-C1S5-00000-00&context=1516831.
[5] Netflix, Twitter, 17, Apr. 2020, https://twitter.com/netflix/status/1251250068155330560.
[6] Allyn, Bobby. “'One Day At A Time' Picked Up For Fourth Season Following Netflix Cancellation.” NPR, NPR, 28 June 2019, www.npr.org/2019/06/27/736816022/one-day-at-a-time-picked-up-for-fourth-season-following-netflix-cancellation.
[7] Thompson, Derek. “Workism Is Making Americans Miserable.” The Atlantic, Atlantic Media Company, 13 Aug. 2019, www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2019/02/religion-workism-making-americans-miserable/583441/.
[8] Soloski, Alexis. “'Billions,' 'Succession' and the Making of Wealth Porn.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 14 Mar. 2019, www.nytimes.com/2019/03/14/arts/television/billions-showtime-succession-hbo.html.
[9] Seitz, Matt Zoller. “Succession Season Two Is Merciless, Cruel, and Better Than Ever.” Vulture, Vulture, 5 Aug. 2019, www.vulture.com/2019/08/succession-hbo-season-2-review.html.
[10] "How to make TV look a billion dollars: meet the 'wealth consultants' behind Succession and Billions." Telegraph Online 26 Aug. 2019. Business Insights: Global. Web. 15 Apr. 2020.
[11] Statista Research Department. “4K Ultra HDTV US Household Penetration 2014-2018.” Statista, 19 Feb. 2020, www.statista.com/statistics/736142/4k-ultra-hdtv-us-household-penetration/.
[12] Statista Research Department. “Global 4K UHD TV Unit Sales 2014-2019.” Statista, 19 Feb. 2020, www.statista.com/statistics/540680/global-4k-tv-unit-sales/.
[13] “Succession TV Show on HBO: Ratings (Cancel or Season 3?).” Canceled Renewed TV Shows - TV Series Finale, 15 Oct. 2019, tvseriesfinale.com/tv-show/succession-season-two-ratings/.
[14] Hbo. “HBO Renews Drama Series SUCCESSION for a Third Season.” Medium, HBO & Cinemax PR, 20 Aug. 2019, medium.com/hbo-cinemax-pr/hbo-renews-drama-series-succession-for-a-third-season-d2d8d0ca3037.
