Comedy series rumored to be in the works at Netflix

The next stab in the Netflix vs. HBO tit-for-tat rivalry was revealed today with rumors that Netflix is planning to produce a new comedy series, according to Bloomberg News.

The series, called "Orange is the New Black," would be 13 episodes and based on the diary of a communications executive who served time at a low-level women's prison on drug-related charges, according to Bloomberg News. Jenji Kohan, who made "Weeds," is said to be the show's creator.

Just last week, Netflix debuted a series similar to the "Sopranos" called "Lilyhammer." The video streaming company also plans to launch "House of Cards" starring actor Kevin Spacey later this year. Netflix is paying for exclusive or first rights for all of these shows, including "Orange is the New Black," according to Bloomberg News.

Producing these exclusive series seems to be one of the ways Netflix is pushing back at competition with HBO. In January, HBO stopped providing DVDs of its shows to Netflix and earlier this month it invested in the Australian version of Netflix, called Quickflix.

According to Bloomberg News, as of the end of 2011, HBO had 93 million subscribers worldwide and Netflix had more than 23 million streaming customers.

"The competitor we fear the most is HBO Go," Reed Hastings, co-founder and CEO of Netflix, said at the UBS Media conference in December. "They aren't competing directly with us now, but they can. HBO is becoming much more Netflix-like, and we're becoming much more HBO-like."

Netflix did not respond to a request for comment.