HBO
HBO (
Home Box Office) is a
premium cable television network with headquarters in
New York City. HBO airs theatrically released feature
films, proprietary original full-length
television movies, and various original series. Some of HBO's popular series have included:
The Sopranos,
Sex and the City,
Six Feet Under,
Curb Your Enthusiasm,
Oz,
The Wire,
Tracey Takes On...,
Carnivàle,
Entourage,
The Larry Sanders Show,
Deadwood,
Mr Show,
Big Love,
Da Ali G Show,
Band of Brothers,
Rome and
Extras (the last three were in collaboration with the
BBC). HBO broadcasts
boxing matches under the banner name
HBO Boxing & B.A.D. (Boxing After Dark)
HBO was the first cable network to originate as a non-terrestrial broadcast TV network. In 1965, cable pioneer and visionary
Charles Francis Dolan won the franchise to build a cable system in lower
Manhattan. The new system, named Sterling Manhattan Cable by Mr. Dolan, was the nation's first urban underground cable system. Instead of stringing cable on telephone poles and using
microwave antennas to receive the signals, Sterling laid underground cable beneath the streets of Manhattan because television signals were blocked by many tall buildings. Time Life, Inc., in the same year, purchased 20 percent of Dolan's company.
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HBO logo used from 1975-1980. |
In early 1970, looking for new revenue sources, Mr. Dolan came up with the idea of creating a
Green channel for which subscribers would pay extra to receive uncut commercial-free movies and sports coverage. To help run his new project, Dolan hired a young attorney named
Gerald Levin, who had experience in contracting for televised films and sporting events, as his Vice President of Programming.
Dolan presented his "Green Channel" idea to Time Life management, and though satellite distribution was only a distant possibility at the time, he persuaded Time Life to back him, and soon "The Green Channel" became Home Box Office on November 8, 1972. HBO began using microwave to feed its programming. The first program aired over the pay-channel was a New York Rangers / Vancouver Canucks game, to a
CATV system in
Wilkes Barre, Pennsylvania. Also on that night was the first film to be seen on HBO --
Sometimes a Great Notion, starring
Paul Newman and
Henry Fonda.
Sterling Manhattan Cable was rapidly losing money because the company had a small subscriber base of 20,000 customers in Manhattan. Dolan's media partner, Time Life, Inc., gained 80 percent control of Sterling and decided to pull the plug on the Sterling Manhattan operation. Time Life dropped the Sterling name to become Manhattan Cable Television and gained control of HBO in March, 1973. Gerald Levin replaced Dolan as HBO's President and Chief Executive Officer. In September 1973, Time Life, Inc. completed its acquisition of the pay service. HBO was soon on 14 systems in New York and Pennsylvania, but the churn rate was exceptionally high. Subscribers would sample the service for a few weeks, get weary of seeing the same films, and then cancel. HBO was struggling and something had to be done. When HBO first came to Lawrence, Massachusetts, the idea was to allow subscribers to preview the service for free on channel 3. After a month, the service moved to channel 6 and was scrambled. The preview proved popular, obtaining many subscriptions and the concept was used elsewhere. (Lawrence receives HBO on channel 301 today.)
On
December 13,
1975, HBO became the first TV network to broadcast its signals via
satellite when it showed the "
Thrilla in Manila"
boxing match between
Muhammad Ali and
Joe Frazier. On
December 28,
1981, HBO expanded its programming schedule to 24 hours a day, seven days per week. (
Cinemax was 24/7 from the day it signed on, and
Showtime and
The Movie Channel went 24 hours earlier.) In January
1986, HBO also became the first satellite network to
encrypt its signal from unauthorized viewing by way of the
Videocipher II System. Later, HBO was one of the first cable TV networks to broadcast a
high-definition version of its channel.
Originally, HBO was part of
Time Inc.. When Time merged with Warner Communications in 1989, it became part of
Time Warner, who serves as its parent company today.
HBO has also developed a reputation for offering very high quality original programming. HBO is a subscription-only service and does not carry normal commercials; both of these factors relieve HBO from pressures to
tone down controversial aspects in their programs, thus allowing for explicit themes, such as graphic
violence, explicit
sex,
profanity, and
drug use.
The network is currently received in roughly one-third of households in the
United States. It can be quite expensive to acquire HBO because subscribers are generally required to pay for an extra "tier" of service even before paying for the channel itself (though all of the HBO channels are often priced together in a single package). Someone upgrading from a standard cable package might see their bill increase more than 40%. However, federal law requires that a cable system allow a person to get just basic cable (local broadcast channels) and HBO. Cable systems can require the use of a converter box (usually digital) to receive HBO.
Even in the days of the
V-chip, the primary HBO channel still does not run unedited R rated films or TV-MA rated programming during the daytime. HBO's multiplex channels will do so (excluding HBO Family, which doesn't run R rated films at all and will generally run PG-13 rated films only between 6 p.m. and 6 a.m.).
Since TV
critics are generally obliged to keep track of HBO, but the general public is not, the network's influence can be overstated. However, several HBO programs have been re-aired on other networks and local syndication (usually after some editing), and a number of them are also available on DVD. Interestingly, since HBO's more successful series, most notably the trio of
Sex and the City,
The Sopranos, and
Six Feet Under, are broadcast on non-cable networks in other countries, such as in the
United Kingdom and
Australia, HBO programming has the potential to be seen by a higher percentage of the population of those countries as compared to the U.S. Because of the high cost of HBO, many Americans only view HBO programs on
DVDs or in basic cable or broadcast
syndication, months or even years after the network has first broadcast the programs.
HBO has international operations in Latin America, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Romania, Poland, Slovenia, Croatia, Serbia, Bulgaria, Pakistan and India. It also had an early investment in
New Zealand's
SKY Network Television through the channel HBO (now Sky Movies).
HBO also had a couple of joint ventures, first, with the formation of
TriStar Pictures with
Columbia Pictures and
CBS. Columbia later bought the 2/3rds interest of the studio. Then, HBO merged its
Comedy Channel with
Viacom's HA! cable network to form
Comedy Central. HBO also had a joint venture with
Liberty Media and many major cable companies in Movietime channel (now
E!). In 1997, The Walt Disney Company and Comcast purchased control of E! In 2003, Viacom bought HBO's half of the Comedy Central channel and merged it to its
MTV Networks unit. In 2005, HBO and
New Line Cinema launched
Picturehouse, an independent film distributor. HBO is the primary sponsor of the
U.S. Comedy Arts Festival.
*1972: "Different and First"
*1978: "Don't Miss HBO"
*1982: "Start with Us on HBO"
*1983: "There's No Place Like HBO"
*1986: "Let's All Get Together"
*1989: "Watch Us Here on HBO"
**"Simply The Best" (Still used in HBO Asia)
*1990: "We're HBO"
*1993: "We're Out of Town Today"
*1997-present: "It's Not TV, It's HBO"
**"Sunday is HBO"
HBO operates seven
multiplex channels, a
high definition channel and a Movies on Demand service (HBO On Demand).
Image:HBO.svg|HBO: Hit movies & first-run films, Original pictures and original hit seriesImage:HBO2.jpg|HBO2: Secondary channel, features more movies, hit series and original pictures as well as R-rated films during the day unlike HBO. It was previously known as HBO PlusImage:HBO Comedy.jpg|HBO Comedy: Light hearted films and movies that make you laugh, as well as rebroadcasts of HBO comedy series and specials. It airs R-rated films during the day, but only broadcasts adult comedy specials at nightImage:HBO Family.jpg|HBO Family: Movies and series aimed at a younger audience as well as films for the whole family. Only airs 'G' or 'PG' rated films during the day and airs 'PG-13' films at night.Image:HBO Latino.jpg|HBO Latino: Spanish language version of HBO, for spanish-speaking audiences. Airs HBO productions including hit series dubbed in Spanish as well as hollywood blockbusters and Spanish films. Also airs boxing and the original series Boxeo De OroImage:HBO Signature.jpg|HBO Signature: Quality films, original HBO series and specials geared primarily at women, the channels' target audience. It was previously known as HBO 3Image:HBO Zone.jpg|HBO Zone: Airs programming aimed at a younger audience usually 18-35 as well as adult oriented programming at nightImage:HBO HD.jpg|HBO HD: A high definition simulcast of the primary HBO channel.HBO also packages the
Eastern and
Pacific feeds of the main channel together, allowing viewers a second chance to watch the same movie/program three hours later/earlier depending on their geographic location.
See
List of programs broadcast by HBO.
HBO currently has exclusive deals with sister company
Warner Bros.,
Dreamworks (which however has been bought by Paramount) and
Twentieth Century Fox. In addition, it holds partial pay-cable rights to movies produced by
Sony Pictures (excluding those in partnership with
Revolution Studios), and
Universal Studios (along
Rogue Pictures and
Focus Features). Despite also being a sister company to HBO, some
New Line Cinema films do not appear on HBO due to a prior output deal with competitor
Starz!.
As a result of these limited deals, HBO often fills its late-night schedule with recent B-movies (some of which were never released theatrically) produced by lesser-known independent companies. On the other hand, HBO often shows sub-runs (that is, runs of films that have already received broadcast network/syndicated television releases) of theatrical films from
Paramount Pictures,
Universal Pictures, and
Lions Gate Films.
In 2003, HBO acquired the exclusive pay-cable rights to
Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones from Fox and
Lucasfilm, Ltd., and during its initial 18-month term of license aired the movie without it first seeing any pay-per-view cable release. HBO also has pay-cable rights to its sequel,
Revenge Of The Sith and will be able to become the first major cable network to run all six films (a deal to air the entire saga, including the revised DVD version of the original trilogy [IV, V, and VI] was made during negotiations for the pay-cable rights to
Clones).
HBO also has exclusive pay-cable rights to its own in-house theatrical films made under
HBO Films.
Usually films which HBO has pay-cable rights will also run on Cinemax during its time of license.
HBO's first broadcast was of a
New York Rangers /
Vancouver Canucks game, transmitted to a
CATV system in
Wilkes Barre, Pennsylvania on
November 8 1972. HBO is known for its boxing matchups including those shown on
HBO World Championship Boxing. In 1975, the "
Thrilla in Manila"
boxing match between
Muhammad Ali and
Joe Frazier aired on HBO and was the first program on the pay-cable network to air via satellite. During the mid-1970s, HBO aired several NBA and ABA basketball games (notably, the last ABA Final in 1976, between the New York Nets and Denver Nuggets) as well as some NHL hockey games. In 1977, HBO launched
Inside the NFL, the channel's longest-running program. In 1978, HBO began airing coverage of Wimbledon and did so until 1998. Coverage has since moved to sister network
TNT and later to
NBC. HBO launched
Boxing After Dark in 1997, showcasing some of boxing's newest talents. HBO currently operates
HBO PPV (formally TVKO) to broadcast boxing matches to
pay-per-view subscribers.
Many of HBO's documentary series appear under the
America Undercover brand. Among the regular AU features are
Real Sex and
Autopsy.
In 2004, guided by human rights activist
Ansar Burney, an HBO team used a hidden camera to document slavery and torture in secret desert camps where boys under the age of five were trained to race camels, a national sport in the
United Arab Emirates (UAE). This half-hour investigative report exposed a carefully hidden child slavery ring that bought or kidnapped hundreds of young boys in Pakistan and Bangladesh. These boys were then forced to become camel jockeys in the UAE. The report also questioned the sincerity of U.S. diplomacy in pressuring an ally, the UAE, to comply with its own stated policy of banning the use of children under 15 from camel racing.
The documentary won a Sports Emmy Award in 2004 for "Outstanding Sports Journalism" and the 2006 Alfred I. DuPont-Columbia University Award for outstanding broadcast journalism. It also brought world attention to the plight of child camel jockeys in the Middle East and helped
Ansar Burney Trust to convince the governments of Qatar and the UAE to end the use of children in this sport
One of its most recent documentaries was "Dare to Dream" about the U.S. Women's Soccer Team and their effort to make a difference. This documentary featured Mia Hamm, Kristine Lilly, Brandy Chastain, Joy Fawcett, and Julie Foudy.
The HBO Trademark has been used in various products. In 2005, HBO launched a deal with
Cingular Wireless to create
HBO Mobile.
HBO Mobile, a pay service feature much like the cable network itself, features information on HBO original series such as
The Sopranos,
Sex and the City and others, including episode guides, wallpapers and ringtones voiced by cast members of HBO series.
In 2005, a version of the DVD interactive game
Scene It was released tailored to the HBO network itself. It features trivia on various HBO series.
*
HBO Boxing*
HBO Films*
HBO Asia*
Captain Midnight (HBO), for a 1986 incident where HBO's signal was jammed to protest the scrambling of their signal for satellite dish users
*
Official Site*
HBO HD*
HBO Family*
HBO Latino
