Netflix CEO doesn't oppose AT&T-Time Warner merger yet

LAGUNA BEACH, Calif. — Reed Hastings, CEO of streaming entertainment powerhouse Netflix, is not worried yet about potential competition from the proposed merger of HBO owner Time Warner and wireless-cable giant AT&T.

Speaking at the Wall Street Journal's WSJ.D Live conference here tonight, Hastings said if AT&T treats Netflix and HBO the same, and doesn’t give “an unfair advantage to HBO...that’s the starting place.”

Hastings opposed the Comcast acquisition of NBCUniversal in 2009 because he feared the cable giant would give preferential treatment to NBCUniversal’s cable channels, but he spoke in favor of Charter’s takeover of the Time Warner cable systems earlier this year because Charter supported Net Neutrality. (Time Warner cable was spun off from Time Warner in 2009.)

“AT&T will be very aggressive about building a national competitor to the cable companies,” Hastings said. “If they pull that off, it would be in the consumer’s interest.”

Netflix currently has more than 86 million subscribers.

In his talk, Hastings said Netflix has brought in about $8 billion in “customer’s money” last year. The company started in 1999 by “licking envelopes” to send out DVDs, “in the hope that when the Internet got fast enough, we’d be relevant,” he said.

Hastings said studios initially refused to sell current movies and TV shows to offer for streaming, so it started paying for original programming, like the Emmy winning House of Cards and Orange is the New Black.

Looking to the next 10 to 15 years, Hastings said Netflix will continue to focus on movies and TV shows. "No sports, no news,” he said.