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HBO is still distinctively good - they have the time and money to fund things like limited series, and huge shows like Westworld and GoT

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Season 2 of Westworld had fewer viewers than Ballers. Ballers. You're right; it's a huge-budget show, and one HBO clearly hopes will be a tentpole. But it's no Game of Thrones.

There's enough material in A Song of Ice and Fire to make spin-off series. There's already been talk about adapting Robert's Rebellion. Sure, there's no guarantee that they won't be Caprica rather than Frasier, but it's hardly like AMC facing the loss of Breaking Bad and Mad Men.

AMC is already 3 seasons into their Breaking Bad successor (which is arguably better than all but the last season of Breaking Bad itself), and they also have the Walking Dead franchise, plus a plausible franchise in Killing Eve. AMC also owns Sundance TV.

Would I rather own AMC than HBO? No (FX, though, different story). But AMC is a basic cable channel! Breaking Bad and Walking Dead are both much bigger deals than anything HBO has done in the last 10 years except for Game of Thrones. If we have to argue about which is the more important channel in 2018, HBO's model isn't working.

Well Season 1 of Westworld had an interesting premise. Season 2 is just standard robot wars.

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