The HBO linear channels are not presently accessible on either streaming service, but continue to be available to existing subscribers of traditional and virtual pay television providers, and as live streams to Apple, Amazon and Roku customers through streaming partnerships with those companies.
Introduction
HBO
HBO | Introduction
November 8, 1972 November 8, 1972 November 8, 1972. November 8, 1972
who is tyrion lannister?
user
A fictional character in the "A Song of Ice and Fire".
assistant
who created this character?
user
George R. R. Martin
assistant
can you describe the character in brief?
user
He is a prominent point of view character in the series, having the most viewpoint chapters (49 chapters) in the first five published novels.
assistant
did he appear in the tele series versions as well?
user
Yes, in Game of Thrones.
assistant
who plays his character in it?
user
Sorry. I cannot find the answer based on the context.
assistant
did this character win any awards?
user
The actor won a  Golden Globe Award.
assistant
which tv channel adapted the author's books for a tele series?
user
HBO
assistant
do they publish any reading material?
user
Yes, a newsmagazine.
assistant
when was this channel set up?
user
With external expenses resulting in consistent financial losses, in the summer of 1971, while on a family vacation to France aboard the Queen Elizabeth 2, a desperate Dolan—wanting to help Sterling Manhattan turn profitable and to prevent Time-Life, Inc. (then the book publishing unit of Time Inc.) from pulling its investment in the system—developed a proposal for a cable-originated television channel. Codenamed "The Green Channel", the conceptual subscription service would offer unedited theatrical movies licensed from the major Hollywood film studios and live sporting events, all presented without interruptions by advertising and sold for a flat monthly fee to prospective subscribers.
HBO | Development and early expansion as a regional service (1971–1975)
(HBO Family continued to maintain a limited slate of original children's programming until 2003.)
HBO | Original programming
HBO began transmitting a high definition simulcast feed on March 6, 1999, becoming the first American cable television network to begin simulcast their programming in the format. For the first 23 months of its existence, the HD feed only transmitted theatrical films from the network's programming suppliers (initially accounting for about 45% of its available feature film output, expanding to around 60% by early 2001) and HBO's in-house original movies in the format, as existing widescreen prints of those films were already scalable in the 16:9 widescreen aspect ratio and could readily be upconverted to HD resolution. Original programming began to be made available in HD on January 14, 2001, when the network commenced a 13-week Sunday "encore" presentation of the second season of "The Sopranos" in remastered 1080i HD.
HBO | HBO HD
After one month, HBO was moved to channel 6, where it would be scrambled. The preview proved popular among the cable provider's subscribers, helping to increase subscriptions for HBO. HBO continued the concept an expanded it other cable systems in 1977. Soon, other premium cable services (such as Showtime and The Movie Channel) began offering periodic free previews themselves in order to attract new subscribers.
Free preview | History
The free preview concept was originated in the early 1970s by Home Box Office (HBO). By 1973, within a year of its November 1972 launch, HBO was carried on 14 cable systems around the country, located in New York and Pennsylvania. The channel had an exceptionally high churn rate as subscribers would sample the service for a few weeks, eventually become tired of seeing the same films being repeated over and over, and then ultimately cancel their subscriptions. Realizing the struggles it was facing because of this, HBO partnered with a cable system in Lawrence, Massachusetts to allow subscribers to view the service's programming for free on channel 3.
Free preview | History
It eventually became the first television channel in the world to begin transmitting via satellite—expanding the growing regional pay service into a national television network—in September 1975, and, alongside sister channel Cinemax, was among the first two American pay television services to offer complimentary multiplexed channels in August 1991. The network operates seven 24-hour, linear multiplex channels as well as a traditional subscription video on demand platform (HBO On Demand) and an eponymous streaming service (which launched as HBO Now in April 2015, and has over five million subscribers in the United States ), and its content is the centerpiece of HBO Max, an expanded streaming platform operated separately from but sharing management with Home Box Office, Inc., which also includes original programming produced exclusively for the service and content from other WarnerMedia properties.
HBO | Introduction
to 3:00 a.m. ET/PT) on weekends. By April 1980, when the current version of its 1975 logo was first introduced, the full "Home Box Office" name had been de-emphasized in most on-air and other promotional parlance, in favor of identifying under the "HBO" initialism. (The full name is still used as the legal corporate name of its parent subsidiary under WarnerMedia, and is used on-air in copyright legalese during the end credits of its original programs and network IDs shown twice per day—in the morning and late afternoon—at the close of promotional breaks; presenting credits shown at the start of its original specials; and a proprietary vanity card—based on the "static noise" card that has preceded HBO's original series, specials and documentaries since 1993—shown at the close of the network's original programs.) Subscribership mostly doubled each year into the early 1980s, increasing from around four million subscribers (across 1,755 systems) in December 1979 to around 10.4 million subscribers (across 3,600+ systems) by November 1982.
HBO | National expansion, innovation and rise to prominence (1975–1993)
On average, movies occupy between 14 and 18 hours of the daily schedule on HBO and HBO2 (or as little as 12 hours on the latter, depending upon if HBO2 is scheduled to carry an extended "catch-up" marathon of an HBO original series), and up to 20 hours per day—depending on channel format—on its five thematic multiplex channels. Since June 6, 1992, HBO has offered weekly pay television premieres of recent theatrical and original made-for-cable movies on Saturdays at 8:00 p.m. ET/PT. (Event presentations that have followed the movie—such as boxing coverage or concerts—have caused rare variances in the preceding film's start time; if a live event was scheduled, prior to the December 2018 discontinuation of HBO's boxing telecasts, the premiered film would air after the event—in reverse order from the Eastern feed scheduling—on the Pacific Time Zone feed.) From June 1996 until May 2006, the presentations were marketed as the "Saturday Night Guarantee" to denote a promise of "a new movie [premiering] every Saturday night" all 52 weeks of the year.
HBO | Movie library
Home Box Office (HBO) is an American pay television network owned by WarnerMedia Studios & Networks and the flagship property of parent subsidiary Home Box Office, Inc. Maintaining a general entertainment format, programming featured on the network consists primarily of theatrically released motion pictures and original television programs as well as made-for-cable movies, documentaries and occasional comedy and concert specials. HBO—also the oldest and longest continuously operating subscription television service (basic or a la carte premium) in the United States—pioneered modern pay television upon its launch on November 8, 1972: it was the first television service to be directly transmitted and distributed to individual cable television systems, and was the conceptual blueprint for the "premium channel," pay television services sold to subscribers for an extra monthly fee that do not accept traditional advertising and present their programming without editing for objectionable material.
HBO | Introduction
The show was broadcast live on the HBO cable channel, as well as in Canada, on March 14, 2009, at 9:00PM EST. It was released to DVD on November 3, 2009.
You're Welcome America | Introduction
ET/PT. (At various points, HBO also prohibited showings of X-/NC-17-rated and foreign art films.) The policy—which extended to films shown between 6:00 a.m. and 8:00 p.m. ET/PT, when HBO began offering 24-hour programming on weekends in September 1981—may have once stemmed from HBO's pre-mid-2000s availability on analog cable tiers (whereas its multiplex channels generally require a digital cable subscription or at least scrambling), and, because of controversy surrounding daytime showings of R-rated films that began being scheduled on competing premium services as early as 1980, remained in place well after the V-chip became standard in newer television sets. From April 1979 to April 1986, rating bumpers preceding HBO telecasts of R-rated films included a special disclaimer indicating to viewers that the movie would air exclusively during the designated watershed period (“Home Box Office/HBO will show this feature only at night”).
HBO | Programming
HBO has since expanded to include seven multiplex channels in the United States; and, through its namesake parent subsidiary, twelve active and three defunct international services (either owned by WarnerMedia directly or through programming and brand licensing agreements with domestic media companies) across four continents, and various television, film and home entertainment ventures. This article details the history of HBO tracing to its founding by Sterling Communications (then controlled by Time Inc.) in July 1971, and its operational history from the channel's November 1972 launch to its current ownership by WarnerMedia.
History of HBO | Introduction
HBO temporarily fed its domestic Eastern and Pacific feeds to Westar 1 for the first four months of satellite transmissions; the network's transmissions shifted to Satcom 1 when full-time commercial service began on February 28, 1976. The network's programming expanded with the switch to satellite transmission, operating daily from 1:30 p.m. to 1:30 a.m. ET/PT in an extension of its weekend schedule to weekdays. (HBO's broadcast schedule was reduced by 20 hours per week—reverting to sign-on times of 5:30 p.m. ET/PT weekdays and, with adjustments for sports events, 3:00 p.m. ET/PT on weekends—on October 11, 1976, citing low afternoon viewership and a lack of G- and PG-rated films in its inventory to fill the schedule.) Through the use of satellite, the network began transmitting separate programming feeds for the Eastern and Pacific Time Zones, allowing the same programs that are first broadcast in the eastern half of the United States to air at accordant times in the western part of the country.
HBO | National expansion, innovation and rise to prominence (1975–1993)
The original HBO logo—used from the channel's November 8, 1972 launch until February 28, 1975—consisted of a minimalist marquee light array surrounding a left-adjusted "Home Box Office" nameplate, rendered in mixed-caps, accompanied by a ticket stub image (the former and latter signifying the channel's initial film and event programming focus). The first iteration of the current HBO lettermark, designed by then Time-Life art director Betty E. Brugger, was introduced on March 1, 1975; it consisted of bold, uppercase "HBO" text incorporating a bullseye mark—derived from the tuning knobs found on then-current television set and cable converter box models—inside the cylindrical "O".
HBO | Branding
(Time-Life's interest in Sterling Communications concurrently increased from 25% to 44.5%.) Desperate to keep the company afloat, Dolan began conceiving ideas to help make Sterling Manhattan profitable. In the summer of 1971, while on a family vacation en route to France aboard the Queen Elizabeth 2, he began developing a proposal for a cable-originated television channel. The concept, codenamed "The Green Channel", was for a subscription service that would offer unedited theatrical movies licensed from the major Hollywood film studios and live sporting events, all presented without interruptions by advertising and sold for a flat monthly fee to prospective subscribers.
History of HBO | Background and development (pre-1972)
Prior to October 2008, much of HBO's programming aired in Canada on the various multiplex channels of both Astral Media's The Movie Network, which at the time was available only in Eastern Canada, and Corus Entertainment's Movie Central, which was offered in Western and Northern Canada. A few HBO programs aired in first-run and/or second window on basic cable specialty channels such as Bravo and Showcase. On September 22, 2008, The Movie Network and Movie Central announced that the two networks would jointly begin offering a dedicated HBO multiplex channel (in both standard definition and high definition formats), which would debut on October 30.
HBO (Canadian TV channel) | Background and launch
HBOS was formed by a merger of Halifax and Bank of Scotland in 2001, Halifax having demutualised and floated four years prior.
HBOS | History
to transmit three HBO feeds and the primary Cinemax channel through the compression standard to participating systems that adopted the technology, and served as the benchmark for the launch of additional multiplex channels of both HBO and Cinemax utilizing compression—commencing with the December 1996 launch of HBO Family and concluding with the 2001 launches of four Cinemax channels: WMax (now MovieMax), @Max (now Cinemáx), OuterMax and 5StarMax.
History of HBO | Time Warner ownership; rising prominence of original programming (1989–2016)
Attempts to launch pay television services had been done on an experimental basis in the United States dating to 1951 (among them, Phonevision in New York City, Chicago and Hartford; SubscriberVision in New York City; Telemeter in Palm Springs, California; and Telemovies in Bartlesville, Oklahoma) with little to no success, muzzled by campaigns backed by movie theater chains and commercial broadcasters to assuage television viewers to the supposed threat of pay television to the movie industry and free-to-air television access, limited user interest, and FCC restrictions on the types of programming that could be offered to subscription services. Undeterred, Dolan managed to persuade Time-Life to assist him in backing the project.
History of HBO | Background and development (pre-1972)
Home Box Office launched at 7:30 p.m. Eastern Time on November 8, 1972. The service's inaugural program and event telecast, a National Hockey League (NHL) game between the New York Rangers and the Vancouver Canucks from Madison Square Garden (part of a long-term agreement to broadcast sports events based at the Manhattan arena), was transmitted that evening over channel 21—its original assigned channel on the Teleservice system—to its initial base of 365 subscribers in Wilkes-Barre. (A plaque commemorating the launch event is located at Public Square in downtown Wilkes-Barre, established in honor of Service Electric's April 1984 addition of HBO sister channel Cinemax to its lineup.
History of HBO | Launch and expansion as a regional service (1972–1975)
The moniker was intended as a placeholder name in order to meet deadlines to publish a memorandum and research brochures about the new service; management intended to come up with a permanent name as development continued, however, the "Home Box Office" name stuck.
HBO | Development and early expansion as a regional service (1971–1975)
By the end of 1977, the network had around one million subscribers across 435 cable and MDS systems serving 45 states. Time's third-quarter fiscal report that year disclosed that HBO had turned its first profit in nearly five years of operation. The network achieved full nationwide distribution in December 1978, having garnered 750 cable affiliates in all 50 U.S. states with around two million subscribers. Programming gradually expanded over time; by January 1979, HBO's programming day lasted between nine and eleven hours per day (usually from 5:00 p.m. to 2:00 a.m. ET/PT) on weekdays and around 12½ hours (usually from 2:30 p.m.
HBO | National expansion, innovation and rise to prominence (1975–1993)
Cable providers were given permission to offer the unscrambled HBO content—aired for a single evening or, beginning in 1981 at the network level (as early as 1978 on some providers), over a two-day weekend (later extended to three days in 1997, then to a Friday-to-Monday "four-day weekend" format by 2008)—over a local origination channel, though satellite and digital cable providers elected instead to unencrypt the channels corresponding to each HBO feed for the preview period. Until 2002, interstitials hosted by on-air presenters (notably including, among others, Norm Crosby, Greg Kinnear, Sinbad and Ellen DeGeneres) promoting the service and its upcoming programs to prospective subscribers aired alongside on-air promotions between programs during the preview weekend, although interstitials produced in-house or by third-party producers were inserted by some providers over the HBO feed during promo breaks for their local or regional audience; from September 1988 to September 1994, the network also aired a 15-minute-long promotional "free preview show" each night of the preview event—usually following the headlining prime time film—that previewed upcoming HBO programming for prospective and existing subscribers.
HBO | Programming
Programming on HBO initially consisted of theatrical films and event programming (much of which was sourced to the service through an agreement with Madison Square Garden that dated to 1969, and was extended to allow regional broadcasts one week before HBO launched), arranged in the form of a double feature, or a single movie presentation paired with either a sports or special event (often bridged by a short film or other interstitial content); by 1974, when the service began offering programming during the l concert specials and other music programs, daytime children's programs and various instructional series were added to the schedule.
Home Box Office, Inc. | Early history; spin-out from Sterling
Each evening's schedule was arranged to present either a double feature (which, under FCC anti-siphoning rules then maintained to protect programming supply for broadcast stations until they were struck down by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit in March 1977, tended to be releases dating no more than two years from their initial theatrical exhibition), or a combination of either a sports or special event and a theatrical movie, often bridged by a short film or other interstitial content. Home Box Office licensed theatrical motion pictures from various film studios (such as Warner Bros. Pictures, 20th Century Fox, Universal Studios, Columbia Pictures and Paramount Pictures) on a per-title basis; each film received as many as five showings during their scheduled calendar month, depending on the quantity of titles available each month.
History of HBO | Launch and expansion as a regional service (1972–1975)
Although much of HBO's programming had already aired in Canada as discussed above, many other programs from the network were not previously widely available in Canada; the new channel was created with the intention to fill the gap. Original programming from HBO's sister service Cinemax have also been broadcast at times, particularly action series that Cinemax has aired since broadening its series programming content to include mainstream original series in August 2011 (prior to this, Cinemax's series programming consisted only of softcore pornographic programs).
HBO (Canadian TV channel) | Background and launch
HBO's origins trace to December 1, 1965, when Charles Dolan—who had already done pioneering work in the commercial use of cables—was granted a franchise permit by the New York City Council to build a cable television system encompassing the Lower Manhattan section of New York City (traversing southward from 79th Street on the Upper East Side to 86th Street on the Upper West Side). Dolan was one of three applicants to be awarded cable franchise permits by the City of New York on that date, joined by TelePrompTer Corporation (which was assigned most of Upper Manhattan) and CATV Enterprises Inc.
History of HBO | Background and development (pre-1972)
(An abbreviated version—shown during most non-prime-time programming until October 31, 1986, and thereafter for early-prime-time movie telecasts, aside from premieres and most weekend presentations—commenced from the starburst and the flight of the HBO "space station".) Most variants of this sequence—except for the feature presentation, "Saturday Night Movie" and "Sunday Night Movie" versions—were discontinued on November 1, 1986. (In September 1993, the latter two versions were discontinued and the "Feature Presentation" variant was extended to all films aired in early prime time.) Variants of the intro are available on YouTube, including one—a previously unaired version including two children sitting with the aforementioned couple—uploaded to HBO's official YouTube channel; the sequence is also used as a movie introduction at the annual HBO Bryant Park Summer Film Festival (held since 1992, near HBO's now-former New York City headquarters), and a seldom-used "World Premiere Presentation" variant was featured in the intro of the 2019 HBO stand-up comedy special "Dan Soder: Son of a Gary".
HBO | Branding
Home Box Office (HBO)—originally established on November 8, 1972, as a premium cable television network in the United States—has, since 1991, expanded into a family of international pay television channels presently owned by WarnerMedia subsidiary Home Box Office, Inc. and operated through sister subsidiary WarnerMedia International or owned by third-party media companies through programming and brand licensing partnerships. In countries where an HBO-branded network does not exist in its own right, the network's programming is licensed instead to domestic pay television services or through a basic cable channel; several of these are permitted to refer to themselves as the "Home of HBO", such as with Sky Atlantic and Now TV in parts of Europe, Fox Showcase and Binge in Australia, and OCS in France.
List of HBO international channels | Introduction
(which was assigned to a portion of the city's Upper West Side, extending north of the Harlem River, and The Bronx's Riverdale neighborhood). Dolan's maiden television venture was Teleguide, a closed-circuit television system he started in June 1962, distributing a schedule of tourist information, news, interview segments and feature interstitials to hotels, and by 1964, apartment buildings and office buildings in the New York metropolitan area. Through Dolan's company, Sterling Information Services (operated by Teleguide parent Sterling Movies U.S.A.), Manhattan Cable TV Services began limited cable service in September 1966. Manhattan Cable (renamed Sterling Manhattan Cable Television in January 1971) was the first urban underground cable television system to operate in the United States.
History of HBO | Background and development (pre-1972)
HBO typically prohibited showings of X-/NC-17-rated, pornographic and foreign art films. Home Box Office’s extensive and exclusive sports coverage differentiated it from many other subscription television services that launched in the succeeding decades, laying the groundwork—to an extent—for the development of ESPN and other cable-originated sports networks, and was replicated during the 1970s and early 1980s by local subscription services—including PRISM, ONTV and Wometco Home Theater. Through a contractual amendment signed on November 1, 1972, HBO inherited broadcast rights to Madison Square Garden-originated events that had been contracted to a Sterling Manhattan for one of its local origination channels (which served as the progenitor of the MSG Network) since May 1969.
History of HBO | Launch and expansion as a regional service (1972–1975)
The former premiered in August 2001, won nine Emmys, three Screen Actors Guild Awards, three Golden Globe Awards and a Peabody Award, and other awards. It has since been regarded as one of television's best all-time series including under rankings by "Time", "The Guardian", and "Empire". "The Wire", premiering in June 2002, never won any major television awards, but earned wide critical acclaim for its writing and depictions of criminal and law enforcement issues. It was regarded as one of the best series of all time by media organizations such as "TV Guide", "Entertainment Weekly", "Rolling Stone", and the BBC.
HBO | Rising prominence of original programming (1993–2016)
Through the Scientific Atlanta contract, UA-Columbia and other cable providers also commissioned earth station dishes through Scientific Atlanta to receive the HBO satellite feed at their headend sites.
History of HBO | National expansion, innovation and rise to prominence (1975–1989)
HBO Pictures started winning Emmy Awards in 1993 with two for "Barbarians at the Gate" and "Stalin". Around November 1996, John Matoian was appointed as president of HBO Pictures reporting to HBO chairman and CEO Jeff Bewkes. Bewkes decided by April 1999 that he want a single original programming division. Programming president Chris Albrecht oversaw original series development, specials and miniseries and was selected over Matoian. Matoian resigned because he lost his direct reporting status and would have reported to Albrecht. Executive vice president of HBO NYC Colin Callender, who reported to Matoian, was promoted to take over as president of HBO Pictures.
HBO Films | History
Wilkes-Barre resident Marion Sabestinas, who was the first Teleservice customer to sign up to pay the $6 fee to receive Home Box Office's programming at launch, was honored with a lifetime subscription to Cinemax as part of the plaque ceremony.) The first movie presentation shown on the service aired immediately after the sports event: the 1971 film "Sometimes a Great Notion", starring Paul Newman and Henry Fonda. Initially airing nightly on an open-ended schedule dependent on the length of the evening's programs (usually from 7:00 p.m. to 12:00 a.m. ET), Home Box Office's programming initially consisted solely of theatrical films—including four or five recent titles per month—and event programming.
History of HBO | Launch and expansion as a regional service (1972–1975)
In the Fall of 1974, executives from Time Inc. and the Home Box Office unit began conceptualizing ideas to expand HBO into a national pay television service. Developing a vast infrastructure of microwave and coaxial telephone relay towers in all 50 states and U.S. territories would have been cost-prohibitive for Time/HBO due to the time and expense involved. HBO's existing microwave network was also expensive and difficult to maintain—especially in winter, when snow and ice storms periodically disrupted service—along with being geographically limiting, as the signal could only be fed to an affiliated cable system if it was along the microwave signal's path.
History of HBO | National expansion, innovation and rise to prominence (1975–1989)
The logo would become widely recognized through a program opening sequence, often nicknamed "HBO in Space," produced in late 1981 by New York City-based production firm Liberty Studios and used in some capacity from September 20, 1982 to October 16, 1997. (It replaced a series of six CG-animated "HBO Feature Movie" intros used since April 1979, which Canadian pay service First Choice Superchannel later reused for its 1984–87 movie intros.) The original 70-second version begins inside an apartment, where a man tunes a television set's converter box and sits down with his wife to watch HBO. (A variant that begins with a dark cloudscape fading into the city sequence replaced the early version in December 1983.) As the camera pans out of the apartment window, a continuous stop motion flight (filmed on a computer-controlled camera) occurs over a custom-built model cityscape and countryside set against a painted twilight cyclorama.
HBO | Branding
HBO bought the program in December 2002 for a two-year contract on the network.
Putting It Together: Direct from Broadway | Introduction
On August 1, 1991, HBO and Cinemax became the first subscription television services to launch "multiplexed" companion channels—a term coined by then-CEO Michael Fuchs to equate the channel tier to a multi-screen movie theater—offering, at no extra charge to HBO subscribers, distinct schedules with programs culled from HBO's programming libraries separate from offerings shown concurrently on their respective parent primary channels. TeleCable customers in Overland Park, Kansas, Racine, Wisconsin and suburban Dallas (Richardson and Plano, Texas) that subscribed to either service began receiving two additional HBO channels, HBO2 and HBO3, as part of a test launch. (A secondary Cinemax channel, Cinemax 2 [now MoreMax], was also test launched on the three systems.) The HBO multiplex expanded to include four additional channels: HBO Family (on December 1, 1996), HBO Comedy (on May 6, 1999), HBO Zone (on May 6, 1999), and HBO Latino (on November 1, 2000).
History of HBO | Time Warner ownership; rising prominence of original programming (1989–2016)
This is a listing of programs that HBO has commissioned or co-commissioned in its history.
List of HBO original programming | Introduction
Following a negative to lukewarm reception, HBO chose to not produce more episodes.
Hotel Room | Introduction
For a time following the launch of HBO Canada, many of the Canadian series and documentaries commissioned by The Movie Network (and previously Movie Central) had their debut airings on the channel. Nonetheless, these shows were generally indicated in introductory bumpers as being TMN and/or Movie Central original programs (as opposed to HBO Canada original programming).
HBO (Canadian TV channel) | Original programming
(HBO had been requiring the producers of its original series to film their episodes in widescreen—subsequently downconverted for the standard definition feed—to fit television screens since 1996, in order to future-proof them for remastering in HD.) The third-season premiere of the mob drama, "Mr. Ruggerio's Neighborhood," on March 4 was the first first-run episode of an HBO series to be transmitted in high-definition from its initial telecast, with all subsequent episodes being delivered to HBO exclusively on HD videotape (and downcoverted for the main standard-definition feed). Bob Zitter, then the network's Senior Vice President of Technology Operations, disclosed to "Multichannel News" in January 2001 that HBO elected to delay offering its original series in high definition until there was both sustainable consumer penetration of high-definition television sets and wide accessibility of HDTV equipment on the retail market.
HBO | HBO HD
The first channel was launched in Hungary on September 28, 1991. This was followed by the launch in Czech Republic, founding HBO Europe's predecessor under the name HBO Central Europe. In 1995 Walt Disney entered in joint-venture, and in 1996 it was launched in Poland (1996), Slovakia (1997), Romania (1998), Moldova (1999), Bulgaria (2002), Croatia, Slovenia (2004), Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro (2006) and North Macedonia (2009). In September, 2003 a new premium channel HBO2 was launched as the sister channel of HBO. In November, 2005, Cinemax and Cinemax2 stated to broadcast, while in September, 2007 a third channel named HBO Comedy was introduced as well.
HBO Europe | History
Since 1977, HBO has offered other sports programming in the form of documentary- and interview-based weekly series. On September 22, 1977, HBO premiered the channel's first weekly original series, and its first sports-related documentary and analysis series, "Inside the NFL", a program that featured post-game highlights and analysis of the previous week's marquee National Football League games (using footage provided by NFL Films) as well as interviews with players, coaches and team management. The program was one of the first studio shows on cable television to offer weekly NFL game reviews, predating the launches of similar football review shows on ESPN and other sports-centered cable networks.
HBO | Magazine and documentary series
While the pilot was in development, the project was tentatively titled "More as This Story Develops". On November 29, 2011, HBO filed for a trademark on "The Newsroom" with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. The new name immediately drew comparisons with the Ken Finkleman-created Canadian comedy series of the same name that aired on CBC and public television stations in the U.S. The series' name was confirmed as "The Newsroom" in an HBO promo released on December 21, 2011, previewing its programs for 2012. Writing in "Maclean's", Jaime Weinman said the choice of name was "a bit of a grimly amusing reminder that the U.S.
We Just Decided To | Series title
HBO innovated original entertainment programming for cable television networks, in which a television series (both dramatic and comedic), made-for-television movie or entertainment special is developed for and production is primarily, if not exclusively, handled by the channel of its originating broadcast. Since 1973, the network has produced a variety of original programs alongside its slate of theatrical motion pictures. Most of these programs cater to adult viewers (and, with limited exceptions, are typically assigned TV-MA ratings), often featuring—with such content varying by program—high amounts of profanity, violence, sexual themes and/or nudity that basic cable or over-the-air broadcast channels would be reticent to air, because of objections from sponsors and the risk of them pulling or refusing to sell their advertising, depending on the objectionable material that a sponsor is comfortable placing their advertising.
HBO | Original programming
markets in the weeks following its debut.
HBO | Selecciones en Español de HBO y Cinemax / HBO en Español
(HBO had highlighted said "guarantee" in promotions for the Saturday premiere night dating to January 1994.) Before settling on having Saturday serve as its anchor premiere night, the scheduling of HBO's prime time film premieres varied between Saturday, Sunday and Wednesday, depending on competition from broadcast fare during the traditional network television season. First-run theatrical films debut on average from ten months to one year after a film's initial theatrical run has concluded, and no more than six months after their DVD or digital VOD download release. In September 2020, HBO began incorporating gap weeks into the monthly premiere schedule to showcase new original specials in the Saturday 8:00 slot once per month, at minimum, in lieu of a pay-cable film debut in a preemptive rationing of scheduled movie debuts because of COVID-19-related postponements of newer theatrical releases from HBO's film distribution partners.
HBO | Movie library
channels, such as "You Me Her" from Audience Network (coincidentally now co-owned with HBO under AT&T), though this series later moved to Crave’s main channel.
HBO (Canadian TV channel) | Acquired programming
ET/PT since then) were randomly scheduled on any day of the week. Most of the six HBO thematic multiplex channels—except for HBO Family, which prohibits programming containing either equivalent rating by effect of the channel's target audience—air TV-MA and R-rated programming during morning and afternoon time periods. HBO also does not typically allow most NC-17 rated films to be aired on the primary channel or its multiplex channels. HBO pioneered the free preview concept—now a standard promotional tool in the pay television industry—in 1973, as a marketing strategy allowing participating television providers to offer a sampling of HBO's programming for potential subscribers of the service.
HBO | Programming
Dolan wanted to offset the service's start-up costs by having Sterling enter into carriage agreements with other cable television providers to transmit and sell the service to their customers, and draw revenue from fees charged to subscribers who added the channel onto their existing cable service (which then consisted exclusively of local and imported broadcast stations). Dolan later presented his idea to management at Time-Life, who, despite the potential benefit to the company's cable assets, were initially hesitant to consider the "Green Channel" proposal. In the early 1970s, the cable television industry was not very profitable, and was under constant scrutiny from FCC regulators and the major broadcast television networks (CBS, NBC and ABC), who saw cable as a threat to their viability.
History of HBO | Background and development (pre-1972)
HBO Premiere Films began in 1983 as a telefilm and miniseries production company with an "ambitious production schedule" for the HBO channel. With the high expense of theatrical film exclusive, those films appeared on multiple pay TV channels. Thus, the unit was started to give the channel some exclusives. The company's first head, Jane Deknatel (an English-born television veteran), projected the unit would do 24 projects in 1984 and 50 a few years later. HBO Premiere Films was funding the productions at 60% for just the pay TV rights. Their first film, "The Terry Fox Story", shown in May 1983 was also the first feature film produced expressly for pay television.
HBO Films | History
"The Newsroom" premiered in the United States on HBO on June 24, 2012. It was watched by 2.1 million viewers, making it one of HBO's most-watched series premieres since 2008. The first episode was made available free to all viewers on multiple platforms, including HBO.com, iTunes, YouTube, and other free on-demand services.
The Newsroom (American TV series) | Broadcast
The watershed policy was extended to cover TV-MA-rated programs when the TV Parental Guidelines were implemented industry-wide on January 1, 1997. , HBO has watered down its enforcement of this policy. Erosion of this policy began in January 2010, when the main HBO channel started allowing original series, movies and documentaries given a TV-MA rating for strong profanity and/or non-graphic violence during the daytime on Saturdays and Sundays; in January 2012, HBO included occasional Sunday daytime airings of R-rated films as early as 4:00 p.m. ET/PT within its weekly repeat showing of the Saturday movie premiere (depending on the previous night's scheduled premiere film, said film's length, and HBO original series that may follow the Sunday rebroadcast), though by 2017, afternoon R-rated movie airings (which occasionally have been shown as early as 2:00 p.m.
HBO | Programming
HBO premieres between five and seven comedy specials per year on average, usually making their initial broadcast in late Saturday prime time, following its weekly movie premiere presentation. Regular comedy specials on HBO began on December 31, 1975, with the premiere of "An Evening with Robert Klein", the first of nine HBO stand-up specials that the comic headlined over 35 years. Positive viewer response to the special led to the creation of "On Location", a monthly anthology series that presented a stand-up comedian's nightclub performance in its entirety and uncut; it premiered on March 20, 1976, with a performance by David Steinberg.
HBO | Specials
television networks.
Midtown Manhattan | Introduction
Home Box Office (HBO) is an American pay television network that is the flagship property of Home Box Office, Inc., a subsidiary of the WarnerMedia Studios & Networks division of WarnerMedia. The network primarily broadcasts theatrically released motion pictures and original television programs as well as made-for-cable movies, documentaries, and occasional stand-up comedy and concert specials. HBO does not accept traditional advertising, although it typically airs programming promotions between shows; it also presents content without editing for profanity, violence, sexual depictions, nudity, drug use or other subjectively objectionable material, which—besides being able to depict mature subject matter usually not allowed to air on advertiser-supported television networks—has allowed the network to give program creators full creative autonomy over their projects.
History of HBO | Introduction
During the 1990s, HBO began developing a reputation for high-quality and irreverent original programming; it was throughout this decade that the network experienced increasing success among audiences and acclaim from television critics for original series such as "Tales from the Crypt", "Dream On", "Tracey Takes On...", "Mr. Show with Bob and David", and "Arliss". One of the scripted comedy programs that premiered early in the decade, "The Larry Sanders Show", arguably became HBO's flagship series of the 1990s; the show enjoyed a cult status and critical acclaim, and received multiple nominations and wins for many major television awards, including three Primetime Emmy Awards, three Golden Globe Awards and two Peabody Awards.
HBO | Rising prominence of original programming (1993–2016)
By 1977, two fledgling cable networks had joined HBO in pioneering satellite delivery for the cable television industry, along with conceiving the concept of modern basic cable service, becoming the first of many to adopt satellite transmission over the coming years: Atlanta-based independent station WTCG-TV (soon to become WTBS), which, through then-owner Ted Turner, became the first independent station to become a national superstation in December 1976; and the upstart CBN Satellite Service (and later to become the present-day Freeform), started by Pat Robertson as the first satellite-delivered religious network in April 1977. By April 1976, Home Box Office reached 386,000 subscribers (306,000 through its terrestrial microwave-landline network, 75,000 through satellite distribution, and 5,000 through MDS-served apartment complexes), increasing to 500,000 subscribers by August 1976 (including 180,000 added through the July 27 closure of its purchase of pay-television programming services company Telemation Program Services, which Time/HBO acquired to provide content mediation with program distributors and, with initial intent, to use Telemation to develop "customized" programing schedules for HBO's cable affiliates).
HBO | National expansion, innovation and rise to prominence (1975–1993)
(Manhattan Cable Television would be integrated into Time Warner Cable—formed through a consolidation of the cable system assets of American Television and Communications [ATC], which Time acquired for $140 million in January 1978 and subsequently integrated with Manhattan Cable, and Warner Cable Communications—and would adopt its parent unit's identity in January 1993. Time Warner Cable would be spun-off from its namesake parent as an independent company in 2009, and later merged into Charter Communications in May 2016.) By the start of 1990, HBO served 17.3 million subscribers out of a cumulative 23.7 million subscribers covered between it and sister network Cinemax.
History of HBO | Time Warner ownership; rising prominence of original programming (1989–2016)
Newer episodes of most HBO original programs usually air over its main channel after 8:00 p.m. Eastern and Pacific Time; depending partly on the day's programming schedule, repeats of original series, made-for-cable movies and documentaries (typically excluding programs with graphic violent or sexual content) are shown during the daytime hours on the main channel, and at various times on HBO's themed channels. Four of the themed multiplex channels—HBO Signature, HBO Family, HBO Comedy and HBO Zone—also each carry archived HBO original series and specials dating to the 1990s. (Outside of HBO Family, which regularly airs archived family-oriented series and specials, this may vary on the channel's daily schedule.) Beginning with its programming expansion to afternoons in 1974, the primary HBO channel had imposed a longstanding watershed policy prohibiting films assigned with an “R“ rating from being broadcast before 8:00 p.m.
HBO | Programming
(Two additional "World Championship Boxing"/"Boxing After Dark" cards would follow that originally scheduled final broadcast, on November 24 and December 8, respectively.) The decision cited factors including the influx of sports-based streaming services (such as DAZN and ESPN+) and issues with promoters that hampered its ability to acquire high-profile fight cards, and resulting declining ratings and loss of interest in the sport among HBO's subscribers, as well as WarnerMedia's efforts to have scripted programming become the primary focus of the network’s original content. (Since the discontinuance of live sports telecasts, the HBO Sports production unit now exclusively serves to produce sports magazine shows and documentaries for the network.)
History of HBO | AT&T ownership (2016–present)
NPR stated that Serial Box aimed to be "HBO for readers" and BuzzFeed named it a must-have app in 2017.
Serial Box | Introduction
HBO Now is a deprecated American subscription video on demand streaming service for premium television network HBO that is owned by WarnerMedia subsidiary Home Box Office, Inc. Officially unveiled on March 9 and launched on April 7, 2015 the service allows subscribers on-demand access to HBO's library of original programs, films and other content on personal computers, smartphones, tablet devices and digital media players. Unlike HBO Go, HBO's online video on demand service for existing subscribers of the linear television channel, HBO Now is available as a standalone service and does not require a television subscription to use, targeting cord cutters who use competing services such as Netflix and Hulu.
HBO Now | Introduction
Standing Room Only (SRO) is an entertainment series on HBO that premiered on June 19, 1976. Shows featured concerts, burlesque shows, ventriloquism programs, magic shows and more. From 1982 to 1986, a version of the "HBO in Space" program opening sequence was used to introduce the series.
Standing Room Only (TV series) | Introduction
New series are highlighted in bold.
2004–05 United States network television schedule | Introduction
Sports telecasts were upgraded to HD on September 25, 2004, with an "HBO World Championship Boxing" fight card headlined by Roy Jones Jr. and Glen Johnson. The network began transmitting its six multiplex channels in high definition on September 1, 2008, when DirecTV began offering HD simulcast feeds of HBO2, HBO Family, HBO Signature and HBO Latino.
HBO | HBO HD
As cable television became more affordable and accessible by U.S. consumers, the race to bring the silver screen to the small screen commenced with the launch of pay television services showing premium content. HBO launched on November 8, 1972, becoming the nation's first pay-television channel. On September 30, 1975, HBO became the first television network to continuously deliver signals via satellite when it showed the "Thrilla in Manila" boxing-match between Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier. Star Channel launched their service offerings nationally in 1973 through the delivery of movies on video tapes for cable providers to broadcast. This proved problematic since the videotapes were often riddled with technical difficulties.
1970s | Pay television
For its first three years of operation, it used microwave technology to transmit its programming to CATV and MMDS providers in Pennsylvania and New York. On September 30, 1975, beginning with its telecast of the "Thrilla in Manila" boxing match between Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier, HBO became the first television network to utilize communications satellites to transmit its programming, immediately expanding its distribution to UA Columbia Cablevision's Fort Pierce and Vero Beach, Florida, systems and the American Television and Communications Corporation system in Jackson, Mississippi. The first basic cable network was Atlanta, Georgia independent station WTCG (channel 17), which was uplinked to satellite on December 17, 1976, months after station owner Ted Turner reached an agreement with media executive Howard H.
Television in the United States | Cable and satellite television
Throughout its first eight years, HBO’s sports lineup included New York Yankees Major League Baseball games; NCAA Division I college basketball games originating from Madison Square Garden; World Football League (WFL) games; American Basketball Association (ABA) games; North American Soccer League games; select LPGA golf tournaments; Canadian Football League games; World Hockey Association regular season and playoff games; Eastern College Athletic Conference (ECAC) tournaments (including the Men's Ice Hockey Tournament and the ECAC Holiday Festival basketball tournament); World TeamTennis; the National Horse Show; the Westchester Kennel Club Dog Show; and Professional Bowlers Association (PBA) tournament events. Out of its sports broadcasts, boxing would be the most enduring part of HBO’s programming lineup, beginning with its January 22, 1973, telecast of "The Sunshine Showdown", a world heavyweight championship bout from Kingston, Jamaica—in which George Foreman defeated Joe Frazier in two rounds—that effectively began what became the network’s flagship sports program, "HBO World Championship Boxing".
History of HBO | Launch and expansion as a regional service (1972–1975)
HBO Now offers on-demand access to most of HBO's library of original series, but does not carry several past series such as "Tales from the Crypt", "Tenacious D", "1st & Ten", "Da Ali G Show", or "The Ricky Gervais Show". "The Larry Sanders Show" and "Arliss" were initially unavailable but added in 2016 and 2018 respectively. It also streams HBO's original films and documentaries, along with acquired films from its library through the cable channel's content partners (such as 20th Century Fox, Universal Pictures and HBO sister company Warner Bros. Pictures). Time Warner stated that at least 2,000 titles would be available upon the service's launch.
HBO Now | Content
Interest from the BBC prompted NBC to insert the show into its summer 1994 lineup.
TV Nation | Introduction
Unlike the Fox show though, this special would be shot entirely on location, allowing ample time to apply makeup, wigs, and other accoutrements for the characters; so Ullman felt less panicked. She decided to do a send up of the British class system. All new characters were created and she was joined by Monty Python's Michael Palin for each of the show's sketches. "" premiered on 9 January 1993 on ITV.
Tracey Ullman | HBO
The following is a list of HBO programs that have appeared on the channel in the past. Some of these programs may still be available on demand to HBO subscribers.
List of HBO original programming | Former programming
Unscripted is an American comedy-drama series that aired on HBO in early 2005. Its title referred to the fact that the series was largely improvised by its performers. The series was executive produced by Steven Soderbergh, George Clooney, and Grant Heslov.
Unscripted | Introduction
HBO's stand-up comedy offerings would eventually expand with the "HBO Comedy Hour", which debuted on August 15, 1987 with "Martin Mull: Live from North Ridgeville", a variety-comedy special headlined by Mull that featured a mix of on-stage and pre-filmed sketches. Outside of the Townsend specials, the "Comedy Hour" maintained a virtually identical concept as "On Location", taking that program's place as HBO's flagship stand-up series and ultimately resulting in "On Location"s phase-out after a 13-year run, ending with the premiere of "Billy Crystal: Midnight Train to Moscow" on October 21, 1989. A spin-off, the "HBO Comedy Half-Hour", airing from June 16, 1994 (with the inaugural special "Chris Rock: Big Ass Jokes") until January 23, 1998, maintained a short-form format in which the special's featured comedian presented their routine—usually recorded live at The Fillmore in San Francisco—only for 30 minutes.
HBO | Specials
In its infancy, following its launch over Service Electric Cable's Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, system on November 8, 1972, HBO had been quietly providing pay programming to CATV systems in Pennsylvania and New York, using microwave technology to transmit its programming to cable and MMDS providers. In 1975, HBO became the first cable network to be delivered nationwide by satellite transmission. Although such conversions are rare, some present-day basic cable channels have originated as premium services, including the Disney Channel (from 1983 to 1997), AMC (from 1984 to 1988) and Bravo (from 1982 to 1994); some of these services eventually switched to an advertiser-supported model after transitioning to an unencrypted structure.
Cable television in the United States | Premium cable
When HBO announced the launch of The Comedy Channel, MTV Networks retaliated by announcing the debut of its own rival channel, Ha!
Ha! (TV channel) | Background
The oldest and longest continuously operating subscription television service in the United States, Home Box Office pioneered modern pay television when it launched as a microwave-transmitted regional service on November 8, 1972, and was a leader in the development and growth of the cable television industry as the first television service to be directly transmitted and distributed to individual cable systems; the first television channel in the world to begin transmitting its signal via communications satellite; the first pay television network to operate a standalone companion service (Take 2, now defunct; followed later by Cinemax and the now-defunct Festival); the first cable-originated network to win Emmy, Golden Globe and Peabody Awards; and one of the first two American pay television services (alongside Cinemax) to offer multiplexed channels complimentary to the parent service.
History of HBO | Introduction
Time/HBO reached agreements with various cable system operators—including MSOs like American Television and Communications Corporation, Comcast, Cox Cable Jones Intercable, Heritage Communications and TelePrompTer Cable—to redistribute the satellite feed. On September 30, 1975 at 9:00 p.m. Eastern Time, Home Box Office became the first television network to continuously deliver its signal via satellite when it transmitted the "Thrilla in Manila", televised from the Araneta Coliseum in Cubao, Philippines. Subscribers of UA-Columbia's Fort Pierce and Vero Beach, Florida systems and American Television and Communications's Jackson, Mississippi system joined HBO's existing cable and MDS affiliates in the Mid-Atlantic U.S.—some of which were beginning to transition from microwave to satellite delivery of the network—in receiving the heavyweight championship boxing match that saw Muhammad Ali defeat Joe Frazier by technical knockout.
HBO | National expansion, innovation and rise to prominence (1975–1993)
"The Newsroom"s set is located in Sunset Gower Studios, Hollywood, on Stage 7. The fictional Atlantis World Media building, however, is actually the Bank of America Tower on Sixth Avenue and 42nd Street in Manhattan (directly across the street from HBO's New York City offices), with CGI being used to change the name of the building above the entrance. Production began in the fall of 2011. The schedule called for each episode—comprising a dialogue-dense script of 80 to 90 pages – to be filmed in nine days, as opposed to six to seven pages per day for broadcast network TV series.
The Newsroom (American TV series) | Filming
While the pilot was in development, the project was tentatively titled "More as This Story Develops". On November 29, 2011, HBO filed for a trademark on "The Newsroom" with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. The new name immediately drew comparisons with the Ken Finkleman-created Canadian comedy series of the same name that aired on CBC and public television stations in the U.S. The series' name was confirmed as "The Newsroom" in an HBO promo released on December 21, 2011, previewing its programs for 2012. Writing in "Maclean's", Jaime Weinman said the choice of name was "a bit of a grimly amusing reminder that the U.S.
The Newsroom (American TV series) | Series title
On January 1, 1993, HBO and Cinemax—accompanied by Showtime and The Movie Channel—became the first television services in the world to transmit their signals using digital compression technology. The compressed satellite feeds, fed through Galaxy 1, were fixed at compression ratios intended to maintain "state-of-the-art" signal quality at provider headends. (The DigiCipher system, developed in 1992 by General Instrument to replace the Videocipher II system that was standard among satellite-delivered cable channels, was designed with an advanced encryption algorithm co-developed by AT&T that was structured to prevent the signal piracy issues that were apparent with the Videocipher II.) The adoption of the DigiCipher allowed Home Box Office, Inc.
History of HBO | Time Warner ownership; rising prominence of original programming (1989–2016)
Through 1979, HBO also carried various National Golden Gloves competitions, and from 1978 to 1979, carried the National Collegiate Boxing Association championships. HBO expanded its boxing content to pay-per-view in December 1990, when it created a production arm to distribute and organize marquee boxing matches in conjunction with participating promoters, TVKO (rebranded HBO PPV in 2001 and HBO Boxing Pay-Per-View in 2013); the first TVKO-produced boxing event was the April 19, 1991 "Battle of the Ages" bout between Evander Holyfield and George Foreman. (TVKO signed Holyfield away from Showtime, which had been carrying his matches since its "Showtime Championship Boxing" telecast premiered in 1986, under an agreement with promoter Dan Duva during Holyfield's reign as cruiserweight champion.) HBO expanded its boxing slate on February 3, 1996, when "HBO Boxing After Dark" (titled "HBO Late Night Fights" for its inaugural edition) premiered with title fights involving contenders in the junior featherweight (Marco Antonio Barrera vs.
HBO | Boxing
HBO currently offers clips of the series to commercial customers.
Wild, Wild World of Animals | Introduction
HBO broadcasts sports-related magazine and documentary series produced by HBO Sports, an in-house production division managed by WarnerMedia News & Sports (previously through Time Warner Sports from 1990 to 2018) that also produced selected sports event telecasts for the channel from its November 1972 launch until December 2018. HBO Sports has been headed by several well-known television executives over the years, including its founder Steve Powell (later head of programming at ESPN), Dave Meister (later head of the Tennis Channel), Seth Abraham (later head of MSG Network), and Ross Greenburg.
HBO | Sports programming
Within the month following the satellite launch, preliminary estimates showed that around 8,250 of approximately 25,630 subscribers between the three charter systems had signed up for receive HBO, increasing to 58,000 customers (or approximately 32% of their combined penetration) among six of the eleven cable systems that added HBO—in Jackson, Mississippi; Fort Pierce and Vero Beach, Florida; Tulsa, Oklahoma; Fort Smith, Arkansas; and Laredo, Texas, joining 230,000 subscribers in the Northeastern U.S.—by December 1975. HBO estimated that eleven cable systems received its signal via satellite by the end of 1975. HBO achieved coast-to-coast distribution in December 1975, when TelePrompTer added the network to its Seattle–Tacoma, Washington, systems, extending its reach to the West Coast.
HBO | National expansion, innovation and rise to prominence (1975–1993)
Both answered to president of programming group/West Coast operations, Michael Lombardo.
HBO Films | HBO Films
But I was just doing my victory dance." Its broadcast premiere was on June 5, 2000.
King Gimp | HBO enters
HBO said its marketing plan for the series was, "its largest, most aggressive push for a new series". The channel broadcast the first three episodes seven days a week at various times during the day. Non-subscribers could preview the first two episodes during the first week of September 2005. HBO implemented an outdoor marketing campaign in major cities and produced movie-style trailers which preceded a number of films in cinemas. "Entertainment Weekly", "Vanity Fair", "Time", and "GQ" published full-size articles about the series. The History Channel broadcast five nights of documentaries featuring the Roman Empire, which were hosted by Stevenson, McKidd, and Varma, a collaboration which was the first of its kind between the two networks.
The Stolen Eagle | Marketing
New episodes of HBO series are made available for streaming on the initial airdate, and usually uploaded at their normal airtime, of their original broadcast on the main linear HBO channel. By February 2019, subscribership of HBO Now subscribers had reached over 8 million customers. On June 12, 2020, WarnerMedia announced that HBO Now would be rebranded solely as HBO on August 1; since HBO Max's launch, the HBO streaming service has been serving as the network's default OTT platform for Roku and Amazon Fire TV customers, as WarnerMedia has not yet signed deals to distribute HBO Max on either platform.
HBO | HBO (streaming service)
The show's premiere was moved several times, from fall 2016, to the first quarter of 2017, and then cancelled on Tuesday, May 23, 2017. The cancelation statement read: In July 2017, HBO announced Stewart would produce a stand-up comedy special for the network, his first stand-up special since 1996.
Jon Stewart | HBO projects
On September 10, 1971, the FCC gave preemptive authorization to Time-Life and Sterling Manhattan Cable to begin a pay television operation. On November 2, 1971, Time Inc.'s board of directors approved the "Green Channel" proposal, agreeing to give Dolan a $150,000 development grant for the project. Time-Life and Sterling Communications soon proposed for the "Sterling Cable Network" to be the name of the new service. Discussions to change the service's name took place during a later meeting of Dolan and the executive staff he hired for the project, who ultimately settled on calling it "Home Box Office", which was meant to convey to potential customers that the service would be their "ticket" to movies and events.
HBO | Development and early expansion as a regional service (1971–1975)
Time Warner Cable would be spun-off from its namesake parent as an independent company in 2009, and later merged into Charter Communications in May 2016.) By the start of 1990, HBO served 17.3 million subscribers out of a cumulative 23.7 million subscribers covered between it and sister network Cinemax. On November 15, 1989, Home Box Office, Inc. launched The Comedy Channel, a comedy-centered basic cable channel featuring clips excerpted from stand-up comedy sets, comedic feature films and television series. The Comedy Channel's programming model was similar to the original format of MTV (which, ironically, was launched under WarnerMedia predecessor Warner Communications and American Express's media joint venture, Warner–Amex Satellite Entertainment).
Home Box Office, Inc. | Time-Warner merger
Seeing it as the only efficient and cost-effective option to expand distribution of Home Box Office to the entire nation, Time settled on using a geostationary communications satellite to transmit HBO directly to cable providers throughout the United States within and outside of its existing microwave relay network. Other television broadcasters at the time were hesitant about uplinking their feeds to satellite because they feared that the satellites may inadvertently shut down or jettison out of their orbit, as well as holding reservations about the cost of purchasing downlink receiver dishes, which in 1974, were sold for as much as $75,000 ( adjusted for inflation).
History of HBO | National expansion, innovation and rise to prominence (1975–1989)
Some of its original programs, however, have been aimed at families or children, primarily those produced before 2001 (through its original programming division and third-party producers) and from 2016 to 2020 (under its agreement with Sesame Workshop); children's programs that have aired on HBO have included "Sesame Street", "Fraggle Rock", "", "Babar", "HBO Storybook Musicals", "", "Dear America" and "The Little Lulu Show" as well as acquisitions including "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz", "The Legend of White Fang", "", "Animated Hero Classics" and "The Country Mouse and the City Mouse Adventures". Beginning in 2001, most of the family- or kid-oriented programs had migrated to HBO Family, with only a limited amount of newer family-oriented series being produced for either the primary channel or HBO Family since.
HBO | Original programming
At the time, a beta rollout was expected in the fourth quarter of 2019 and a full launch was projected in the first quarter of 2020. On July 9, 2019, WarnerMedia announced the streaming service would be named HBO Max. ("Max" has been a trademark and on-air shorthand for Cinemax since its 1980 launch, resulting in some confusion between the co-owned premium and streaming services since the announcement of the latter's HBO Max branding.) The service HBO Max would launch in the Spring of 2020 (later targeted for May 27 of that year). Also announced at that time was that, through Warner Bros.'s ownership of the series, "Friends" (which had been available on Netflix) would migrate to HBO Max upon the service's launch; Reese Witherspoon's Hello Sunshine and Greg Berlanti had also signed production deals with the service to develop supplementary original programming (branded as "Max Originals"), which will be co-produced by Warner Max, a production unit formed as a joint venture between Home Box Office, Inc.
HBO | HBO Max
The HBO multiplex channel was launched as "HBO Canada" on October 30, 2008 as a joint venture between the regional Canadian pay TV services The Movie Network (now Crave) and Movie Central (now defunct). Prior to that date, both services had regularly featured HBO programming on their other channels, however some programs had aired on (or were later syndicated to) other broadcast or basic cable channels. Beginning in 2013, most Canadian rights to HBO programming have been consolidated under Bell Media. Bell acquired TMN's parent company in 2013, licensed streaming rights to the HBO back-catalog in 2014, and purchased the distribution rights and subscriber base of Movie Central (which were then assumed by TMN/Crave), as well as additional HBO programming rights, in 2015-16.
List of HBO international channels | Canada
In 1987 Michaels sent them to New York to what was essentially a "Comedy Boot Camp", and in 1988 their pilot special aired on CBC Television and in the United States on HBO before debuting as a series in 1989.
The Kids in the Hall | Early history