Perhaps this is just a statement of how important to consumer electronics the company is, but it seems as though Netflix is mentioned in one way or another every week. Sometimes the company is getting some good press, like when it revamped its iPad interface to allow users to continue watching content that had been interrupted for one reason or another easier. 

Of course there are other days when the news for Netflix is all bad, such as when they issued an apology and then immediately angered their existing customers all over again. It is hard to tell just where the latest news involving Netflix lands.

In what is clearly a baring of its teeth, HBO has announced that they will no longer be offering DVDs of their shows to Netflix at a discounted price. That does not mean that Netflix will have to stop offering shows like Boardwalk Empire and True Blood on DVD and Blu-ray. The mail order DVD portion of the company will just need to pay full price for the DVDs from different sources such as retail chains. 

That makes this move from HBO little more than an antagonistic jab at Netflix. For their part, Netflix has handled this the right way by immediately issuing a statement saying they will continue to offer HBO DVDs and Blu-rays to all of their DVD by mail customers.

HBO recently launched a service known as HBO Go, that allows subscribers to the pay channel to get a huge selection of HBO programming, including entire series such as the Sopranos, streaming to their desktop or mobile devices. Netflix CEO Jeff Hastings has already called HBO Go the “competitor they fear the most.” and it appears that HBO is trying to turn up the heat. 

Of course, if HBO really wanted to start a war for subscribers, they could cut of Netflix entirely, a move the company is obviously not ready to make just yet. HBO is not the first pay TV channel to do battle with Netflix. Starz recently announced it would be pulling its streaming content from the site, though that has more to do with a fees dispute between the two companies.

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