Hastings: TVE could be a threat to Netflix if it got its act together

While the authenticated multiscreen efforts of the pay-TV industry have always been unfavorably compared to Netflix (NASDAQ: NFLX), the SVOD service's CEO says TV Everywhere could be his company's greatest threat -- if its potential were ever realized.

"I would invest more in TV Everywhere," Hastings said at the Dealbook Conference in New York earlier this week. "And [Time Warner Inc. chief executive] Jeff Bewkes pioneered that idea seven, maybe eight years ago and has been trying to drive it. The challenge in the industry [is] it's very fragmented, between the cable networks and distributors, and so it's really tough to work well together to extend the ecosystem."

"And so we've always been most scared of TVE as the fundamental threat -- that is, you get all this incredible content that the ecosystem presents now on demand for your same 80 dollars a month," Hastings added. "And yet the inability of that ecosystem to execute on that for a variety of reasons has been troubling." Article