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This article is about the American pay television channel. For HBO in other countries, see HBO (international). For other uses, see HBO (disambiguation).
HBO
CountryUnited States
HeadquartersNew York City, New York
Programming
Language(s)English
Spanish (HBO Latino only and via SAP audio track; some films may be broadcast in their native language and subtitled into English)
Ownership
OwnerHome Box Office Inc.
(Subsidiary of Time-Life, 1972–1990;
Subsidiary of Time Warner, 1990–present)

HBO is an American premium cable and satellite television network that is owned by Home Box Office Inc., an operating subsidiary of Time Warner. HBO's programming consists primarily of theatrically released motion pictures and original television series, along with made-for-cable movies and documentaries, boxing matches and occasional stand-up comedy and concert specials. HBO is the oldest and longest continuously operating pay television service (basic or premium) in the United States, having been in operation since November 8, 1972.

Overview

As of August 2013, HBO's programming is available to approximately 32,445,000 households with at least one television set (28.41% of cable, satellite and telco customers) in the United States (32,144,000 subscribers or 28.15% of all households with pay television service receive at least HBO's primary channel),[1][2] making it the second largest premium channel in the United States (Encore's programming reaches 41.6 million pay television households as of August 2013[1][3]). In addition to its U.S. subscriber base, HBO also broadcasts in at least 151 countries, covering approximately 114 million subscribers worldwide.[4]

HBO subscribers generally pay for an extra tier of service that includes other cable- and satellite-exclusive channels even before paying for the channel itself (though HBO often prices all of its channels together in a single package). However, a law imposed by the Federal Communications Commission requires that cable providers allow a person to get just "limited" basic cable (which includes local broadcast stations and public, educational, and government access channels) and premium services such as HBO, without subscribing to expanded service (Comcast is the only major provider to purposefully offer the network in such a manner utilizing this law, as it offered a bundled cable/internet package that included limited basic service and HBO beginning in October 2013).[5][6][7] Cable providers can require the use of a converter box – usually digital – in order to receive HBO.

Many HBO programs have been syndicated to other networks and broadcast television stations (usually after some editing), and a number of HBO-produced series and films have been released on DVD. Since HBO's more successful series (most notably shows such as Sex and the City, The Sopranos, The Wire, Entourage, Six Feet Under, Boardwalk Empire, Game of Thrones and True Blood) air on over-the-air broadcasters in other countries (such as in Canada, Australia and much of Europe – including the United Kingdom), HBO's programming has the potential of being exposed to a higher percentage of the population of those countries compared to the United States. Because of the cost of HBO (which is the most expensive of the U.S. premium services, costing a monthly fee as of 2014 between $15 and $20 depending on the provider), many Americans only view HBO programs through DVDs or in basic cable or broadcast syndication – months or even years after these programs have first aired on the network – and with editing for both content and to allow advertising, although several series have filmed alternate "clean" scenes intended for syndication runs.[8]

Starting in 2015, HBO will be available on the Internet via the HBO Go streaming service.[9]

History

Development and launch

In 1965, Charles Dolan, who had already done pioneering work in the commercial use of cables, won a franchise to build a cable television system in the Lower Manhattan section of New York City.[10] The new system, which Dolan called "Sterling Manhattan Cable", became the first urban underground cable television system in the United States. Rather than stringing cable on telephone poles or using microwave antennas to receive the signals, Sterling laid underground cable beneath the streets of Manhattan – because the multitude of tall buildings in the city blocked television signals. That same year, Time-Life, Inc. purchased 20 percent of Dolan's company.[11][12]

In the summer of 1971, while on a family vacation in France, Charles Dolan came up with the concept for a cable-originated television service called "The Green Channel". Dolan later presented his idea to Time-Life management; though satellite distribution seemed only a distant possibility at the time, he persuaded Time-Life to back him.[13] In a meeting involving Dolan and some Time-Life executives that were working on the project, other names were discussed for the new service. They ultimately settled on calling it "Home Box Office", although the name was originally intended as a working title in order to meet deadlines to publish research brochures for the new service, believing that management would come up with a different name for the service at a later date.[13]

Originally, Home Box Office was to debut on a Service Electric cable television system in Allentown, Pennsylvania; in order to avoid blackouts for NBA games that it was set to televise (Allentown was within the NBA's designated blackout radius for the Philadelphia 76ers' market area, under rules that were in effect at the time to protect ticket sales), Time-Life agreed to an offer by Service Electric president John Walson to launch Home Box Office on its system in Wilkes-Barre (outside of the 76ers' DMA, in northeastern Pennsylvania).[13] Home Box Office launched on the evening of November 8, 1972. The first program and film broadcast on the channel, the 1971 movie Sometimes a Great Notion, starring Paul Newman and Henry Fonda, was transmitted to 325 Service Electric subscribers in Wilkes-Barre (a plaque commemorating this event is located at Public Square in downtown Wilkes-Barre). Home Box Office broadcast its first sports event immediately after the film: an NHL hockey game between the New York Rangers and the Vancouver Canucks from Madison Square Garden.[14][15] Four months later in February 1973, Home Box Office aired its first television special, the Pennsylvania Polka Festival.[16] Home Box Office would use a network of microwave relay towers to distribute its programming.[14][17][18]

Sterling Manhattan Cable lost money because the company had only a small subscriber base of 20,000 customers in Manhattan. Dolan's media partner, Time-Life, Inc., gained control of Sterling when it acquired an additional 60 percent of the company, increasing its interest to 80 percent; Time-Life then decided to pull the plug on the Sterling Manhattan operation. Time-Life dropped the "Sterling" name and the company became "Manhattan Cable Television" under Time-Life's control in March 1973.[10] Gerald Levin replaced Dolan as Home Box Office's president and chief executive officer.[19] In September 1973, Time-Life, Inc. completed its acquisition of the pay service.

At the time, Home Box Office's future looked dim: it only had 8,000 subscribers across 14 cable systems, all of which were located in Pennsylvania[20]), and it was suffering from a significant subscriber churn rate. But in 1974 the Time-Life board approved plans for Home Box Office to begin transmitting its programming via satellite.[19] HBO would eventually increase its fortunes within two years: by April 1975, the service had around 100,000 subscribers in Pennsylvania and New York state, and had begun to turn a limited profit.[20]

Since 1981, the full "Home Box Office" name has been de-emphasized by the network, in favor of branding solely by the "HBO" acronym, although the full name is still used in copyright tags featured in the closing credits of its original programs and a legal disclaimer slide seen daily on its primary and multiplex channels.[citation needed]

National expansion, innovation and rise to prominence (1975–1993)

The RCA Satcom domestic communication satellite launched on December 13, 1975, spurred the cable television industry to unprecedented heights – with the assistance of HBO.

At 9:00 p.m. Eastern Time on September 30, 1975, HBO became the first television network to continuously deliver its signal via satellite when it broadcast the "Thrilla in Manila" boxing match between Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier; it was beamed to cable providers in Fort Pierce and Vero Beach, Florida, and Jackson, Mississippi,[21] as well as those already carrying HBO in the northeastern United States.[17][20][22] HBO switched its domestic satellite transmissions from Westar 1 to Satcom 1 in February 1976. By 1977, Ted Turner's Atlanta superstation WTCG-TV (soon to become WTBS) and Pat Robertson's CBN Satellite Service (later to become the present-day ABC Family) had joined it, pioneering satellite delivery for the cable television industry.[17][23] By 1980, HBO was carried on cable providers in all 50 U.S. states.[20]

First version of HBO's current logo, used from 1975 to 1981; during 1980, HBO used this logo in tandem with the second incarnation of the logo (seen above) that is still used to this day.

HBO's schedule ran for only nine hours each day, from 3 p.m. to midnight Eastern Time, during its first nine years of operation. The network first began to operate a 24-hour schedule on weekends in September 1981, running from 3 p.m. on Friday afternoons until midnight Eastern Time on Sunday-Monday nights; the 24-hour schedule expanded to weekdays three months later on December 28, 1981 (however, HBO was not the first pay television network to run a 24-hour daily schedule as Showtime and The Movie Channel had switched to a 24-hour schedule months earlier). In 1983, HBO's first original movie and the first movie produced for pay television, The Terry Fox Story, premiered. That year also saw the premiere of the first children's program broadcast on the channel: Fraggle Rock (that series' creator, Jim Henson, had earlier produced the special Emmett Otter's Jug-Band Christmas, which won an ACE Award in 1978[16]). HBO continued to air various original programs aimed at children until 2001, when these programs almost completely moved over to HBO Family.[24]

HBO became involved in several lawsuits during the 1980s, involving legal statutes imposed by state and city laws that would have resulted in some programs on HBO and other pay television networks being censored on cable systems. In January 1986, HBO became the first satellite-delivered television network to encrypt its signal from unauthorized viewing by way of the Videocipher II system; this initially resulted in a mass lodge of complaints from television receive-only satellite users that previously received HBO's programming without a subscription.[25] Four months later, HBO became a victim of broadcast signal intrusion when satellite television dealer John R. MacDougall, a Florida man calling himself "Captain Midnight", intercepted the network's signal during a movie presentation of The Falcon and the Snowman and overrode the telecast of the film with a message placed over SMPTE color bars in protest of the channel's decision to scramble its signal for home satellite subscribers. The Federal Communications Commission subsequently prosecuted MacDougall.

In 1988, HBO's subscriber base expanded greatly as a result of the Writers Guild of America strike that year. HBO had new programming in its inventory, while the broadcast networks could only air reruns of their shows. In 1989, HBO compared its programming against rival pay television network Showtime, with the slogan "Simply the Best", using the Tina Turner single "The Best" as part of the network's on-air image campaign.[26]

On January 2, 1989, HBO launched Selecciones en Español de HBO y Cinemax ("Spanish Selections from HBO and Cinemax") – an alternate Spanish-language feed of HBO and Cinemax. The service, which initially launched on 20 cable systems in markets with significant populations of Spanish speakers,[27] originally only ran Spanish audio simulcasts of live boxing matches televised by HBO (except for certain events that were already broadcast in Spanish on networks such as Galavisión), dubbed versions of recent feature film releases from HBO's movie suppliers and first-run Spanish-language movies (mostly from Mexico, Argentina and Spain), but later added Spanish dubs of films and other programs broadcast by HBO. Selecciones, which was offered in tandem with HBO – although it operated as a separate service, utilized the second audio program auxiliary channel. Selecciones en Español de HBO y Cinemax became successful to the point that it added 35 additional cable systems to its list of carriers within a few weeks after its debut.[27] Selecciones en Español became HBO en Español on September 27, 1993.[28]

Taking advantage of HBO's successes, Warner Communications merged with HBO parent Time Inc. in 1989 to create Time Warner, which as of 2014, remains the parent company of the network.[29] In 1991, HBO and Cinemax became the first premium services to offer multiplexed channels to cable customers with the launch of HBO2, HBO 3 and Cinemax 2 on three cable systems in Wisconsin, Kansas and Texas.[30] In 1993, HBO became the world's first digitally transmitted television service.[31] HBO: three channels are better than one], Multichannel News (via HighBeam Research), May 13, 1991. The move proved successful, eventually resulting in HBO and Cinemax starting up additional multiplex channels of both services – starting with the December 1996 launch of HBO Family and concluding with the launch of four Cinemax channels in 2001: WMax (now MovieMax), @Max (now MaxLatino), OuterMax and 5StarMax.

Rising prominence of original programming (1993–present)

During the 1990s, HBO began to experience increasing success with its original series such as Tales from the Crypt, Dream On, Tracey Takes On..., Mr. Show with Bob and David and Arliss. One such program, The Larry Sanders Show, arguably became HBO's flagship series during that decade and although it was not commercially as successful as programs that aired on the Big Three networks (ABC, NBC and CBS) and Fox, the show did enjoy a cult status, critical acclaim and received nominations and wins for many major television awards (including Emmy and Golden Globe Awards).[32] The series ranked #38 on TV Guide's 50 Greatest TV Shows of All Time (becoming the only HBO comedy series to make the list)[33] and was also included in Time's list of the "100 Best TV Shows of All Time".[34] The Larry Sanders Show was also ranked by various critics and fans as one of the best TV comedies of the 1990s.[35] Other shows which have aired on HBO in subsequent years (such as Curb Your Enthusiasm, Extras and Entourage) have used traits from the show.

The original programs that HBO has developed since the early 1990s, have earned the channel numerous nominations for and wins of Emmy and Golden Globe Awards.[36][failed verification] One aspect as to the perceived higher quality of these shows is due to both the quality of the writing on the programs and the fact that as a subscription-only service, HBO does not carry "normal" commercials; instead the network runs promotions for upcoming HBO programs and behind-the-scenes featurettes between programs. This relieves HBO from some pressures to tone down controversial aspects of its programs, and allows for more explicit content to be incorporated into its shows that would not be allowed to air on broadcast television or basic cable, such as graphic violence, sexual situations and profanity.

Beginning with the 1997 launch of its first one-hour dramatic narrative series Oz, HBO started a trend that became commonplace with premium cable services. Although critically acclaimed, it was not until The Sopranos premiered in 1999, that the network achieved both mass critical and Emmy success. The Sopranos received 111 Emmy nominations during its six-season run, resulting in 21 wins, two of them for Best Drama. 1998 saw the debut of the 12-part miniseries From the Earth to the Moon, which was produced by Tom Hanks, Ron Howard and Brian Grazer and based on the Andrew Chaikin book A Man on the Moon, which cost $68 million to produce and traced the U.S. space program from the U.S./U.S.S.R. space race through the final moon landing, Apollo 17. From the Earth to the Moon won an Emmy Award for Outstanding Miniseries, and helped spur other HBO miniseries based on historical events such as 61*, Band of Brothers, John Adams and The Pacific. That year also saw the debut of the comedy series Sex and the City, which was based the book series of the same name by Candace Bushnell, which centered on the friendship and romances of four New York City women over the course of the show's six-season run.[37]

In 1999, HBO became the first U.S. cable channel to operate a high-definition simulcast feed.[38] In July 2001, HBO launched HBO on Demand, the first premium subscription video-on-demand enhancement in the United States, to Time Warner Cable subscribers in Columbia, South Carolina.[39]

In 2002, HBO debuted The Wire, which although not surpassing The Sopranos in viewership success, did however match its critical acclaim over its five-season run[citation needed] and further cemented HBO's reputation as being a network that produced quality programming. HBO experienced another success among viewers in 2008, with the debut of True Blood, a vampire drama based on a series of gothic novels by Charlaine Harris. The network saw three more hit series in the 2010s with Game of Thrones, based on George R. R. Martin's fantasy novel series A Song of Ice and Fire, which earned both critical and viewer praise; Girls, a comedy series created by series star Lena Dunham; and True Detective, an anthology-style series – structured to feature a different cast and setting within each season's storyline – which saw established film actors Woody Harrelson and Matthew McConaughey in its lead roles.[40]

Channels

Background

HBO 2 logo, used from 2002 to 2014.
HBO Comedy logo, used from 1999 to 2014.
HBO Family logo, used from 1998 to 2014.

In 1991, HBO and Cinemax became the first premium services to offer multiplexed services to cable customers as companions to the main network, offering additional channels of HBO and Cinemax to three systems operated by TeleCable in Overland Park, Kansas, Racine, Wisconsin and the Dallas suburbs of Richardson and Plano, Texas.[41] The first two multiplex channels – HBO2 and HBO3 – launched as part of this test by the TeleCable systems. The following year, research from ACNielsen revealed that multiplex delivery of HBO and Cinemax had a positive impact on subscriber usage and attitudes, including the retention of pay cable subscriptions by its subscribers.[42]

File:HBO Latino logo.png
HBO Latino logo, used from 2000 to 2014.
HBO Signature logo, used from 1998 to 2014.
HBO Zone logo, used from 1999 to 2014.

The HBO multiplex would later expand with the launch of HBO Family in December 1996, focusing on family-oriented feature films and television series aimed at younger children.[43] The HBO multiplex channels became collectively marketed under the brand name "HBO The Works" in April 1998 (the Cinemax channels concurrently began to be marketed as "MultiMax"), coinciding with the name change of HBO2 as HBO Plus (the channel would ultimately restore the HBO2 name in 2002), and the rebranding and format change of HBO3 as HBO Signature (a network aimed at women). In May 1999, two more channels launched: HBO Comedy (featuring comedic films and series, along with stand-up comedy specials) and HBO Zone (a network aimed at young adults).[44] Just over a year later in October 2000, HBO Latino debuted as a Spanish language channel featuring a mix of dubbed simulcasts of the main HBO channel's programming and Spanish programs that are exclusive to the channel.

The "HBO The Works" brand for the HBO multiplex continued in use until 2004. Individually, the HBO multiplex has no "official" marketed name as of 2014, although HBO and Cinemax's respective multiplex packages are marketed collectively as the "HBO/MAX Pak".[45] HBO Family and HBO Latino have the distinction of being the only multiplex channels of HBO that have their own websites; all of the others are integrated within the main HBO site.

List of channels

Depending on the service provider, HBO provides up to thirteen multiplex channels – seven 24-hour multiplex channels, all of which are simulcast in both standard definition and high definition – as well as a subscription video-on-demand service (HBO On Demand).

HBO broadcasts its primary and multiplex channels on both Eastern and Pacific Time Zone schedules. The respective coastal feeds of each channel are usually packaged together (though most cable providers only offer the east and west coast feeds of the main HBO channel, as well as HBO2 in some cases), resulting in the difference in local airtimes for a particular movie or program between two geographic locations being three hours at most. The premium film service Cinemax, which is also owned by Time Warner, operates as a separate service from HBO; although HBO is very frequently sold together in a package with Cinemax, subscribers to one of the services do not necessarily have to subscribe to the other.

Channel Description and programming

HBO		 The flagship service; HBO airs popular feature films, first-run films, boxing events and sports specials, original series, original made-for-cable movies, stand-up comedy specials, occasional concerts and documentaries; the channel also typically debuts new movies – with feature films debuting on HBO within a lag of between eight months to one year on average from their initial theatrical release – on Saturday nights (usually around 8:00 p.m. Eastern Time; the Pacific Time Zone broadcast of the premiered film airs later in the evening when a live special (most commonly, a telecast of HBO World Championship Boxing or HBO Boxing After Dark) is scheduled to air that particular Saturday, with the special being shown after the movie on the Eastern Time Zone feed). The main HBO channel mainly airs R-rated films only after 8:00 p.m. Eastern and Pacific, but does air certain TV-MA rated programs during the daytime hours.

HBO2		 A secondary channel that features more movies, series, specials and original movies. Unlike the main HBO channel, HBO2 broadcasts R-rated films during the daytime hours. Launched in 1991, the channel was renamed HBO Plus in April 1998, but reverted to the original "HBO2" name in September 2002. In Brazil and Latin America, a local version of HBO2 rebroadcasts movies previously aired on the main HBO Latin America channel, and HBO Plus functions as a separate channel.

HBO Comedy		 Launched on May 6, 1999,[46] this channel features comedic films, as well as rebroadcasts of HBO's original comedy series and stand-up specials; HBO Comedy airs R-rated films during the daytime hours, but only broadcasts adult comedy specials at night.

HBO Family		 Launched in December 1996,[43] HBO Family features movies and series aimed at children, as well as feature films intended for a broader family audience. It airs a block of series aimed at preschoolers called "Jam" each morning from 6 to 11 a.m. Eastern and Pacific Time, with films and family-oriented original specials filling out the remainder of the channel's daily schedule.[47][48] All films broadcast on HBO Family are rated G, PG or PG-13 (or the equivalent TV-G, TV-PG or TV-14); R-rated films and TV-MA rated programs are not broadcast on the channel. Children's programs formerly ran on the main HBO channel in the form of a daily morning block, with specials airing during the late afternoon/early evening hours, these programs migrated entirely to HBO Family by the early 2000s.

HBO Family is HBO's third (and only successful) venture at a family-oriented pay service: two similarly formatted standalone mini-pay services that were launched by the network, Take 2 in 1979 and Festival in 1987, however both networks ceased operations after short existences. Despite being a premium service, cable providers have occasionally used HBO Family to temporarily replace television stations that were dropped due to carriage disputes with providers such as during Hearst Television's 2012 dispute with Time Warner Cable that resulted in TWC's associated Bright House Networks system substituting Tampa, Florida's WMOR-TV with the channel,[49] and a dispute between Cox Communications and LIN TV in which HBO Family temporarily replaced Fox affiliate WVBT from Cox's Hampton Roads, Virginia system from January to February 2000.[50]


HBO Latino		 Launched on October 31, 2000 (although originally slated to debut on September 18 of that year),[51] HBO Latino is a channel aimed at Hispanic and Latino American audiences that largely serves as a Spanish language simulcast of the primary HBO channel, with the exception of some limited program substitutions and different network promotions featured in-between programs (HBO and its other multiplex channels also utilize the second audio program function included on many television sets, and cable and satellite receivers to provide alternate Spanish language audio tracks of most programs). The channel's programming includes HBO original productions, Spanish and Portuguese series from HBO Latin America, dubbed versions of Hollywood blockbusters, Spanish-language films and boxing events (including the original boxing series Boxeo De Oro). The channel is the successor to HBO en Español (originally named Selecciones en Español de HBO y Cinemax), which launched in 1989.

HBO Signature		 HBO Signature features high quality films, HBO original series and specials. Launched in 1991, the channel was originally known as "HBO 3" until October 1998, when its format was changed from a genericized format similar to HBO and HBO2 to focusing on movies, series and specials targeted at a female audience.[44]

HBO Zone		 Launched on May 6, 1999,[46] HBO Zone airs movies and HBO original programs aimed at young adults between the ages of 18 to 34 years old. It is also the only HBO channel that broadcasts adult-oriented programming at night, featuring softcore pornographic movies similar to those seen on sister network Cinemax's Max After Dark block.

Cinemax

Main article: Cinemax

On August 1, 1980, HBO launched a companion network, Cinemax,[52] a movie-based premium channel created as HBO's answer to fellow movie-oriented pay service The Movie Channel (which operated as a standalone service at the time). Unlike HBO, Cinemax maintained a 24-hour schedule from its launch. The channel succeeded early on partly due to its reliance on movie classics from the 1950s to the 1970s, with some more recent films mixed in, that would be presented uncut and without commercial interruption, at a time when cable subscribers only received about three dozen channels due to limited headend channel capacity. In most cases, cable operators sold Cinemax and HBO as a single package, usually offered at a discount for customers that chose to subscribe to both channels.

In its early years, Cinemax carried music specials and some limited original programming such as Second City Television and Max Headroom in addition to movies, but the network subsequently become known among its subscribers for airing softcore adult films and series during the late night hours that contain strong sexual content and nudity (broadcasts of such programs are restricted from airing on the main Cinemax channel before 11:30 p.m. Eastern Time),[53][54] and eventually began producing original action series in August 2011.[54] Beginning with the launch of Cinemax 2 (now MoreMax) in 1991, Cinemax has gradually launched its own set of multiplex services; as of 2014, in addition to its main feed and MoreMax, Cinemax operates five additional channels: ActionMax (which originally launched as Cinemax 3 in 1995); ThrillerMax (which launched in 1998);[55] MovieMax (which originally launched as WMax in 2001); Max Latino (which originally launched as @Max in 2001) and 5StarMax (which originally launched in 2001).[56][57][58][59]

Other services

HBO HD

HBO HD is a high definition simulcast feed of HBO that broadcasts in the 1080i resolution format. In addition to its main channel, HBO also operates high definition simulcast feeds of its six multiplex channels. HBO HD is available on Cox Communications; DirecTV; Charter Communications; Time Warner Cable; Dish Network; Comcast; AT&T U-verse; Optimum; Verizon FiOS and several other major cable providers, although few providers offer all seven multiplex channels in HD. The main channel first began broadcasting in high definition on March 6, 1999.[38]

HBO on Demand

HBO on Demand is the channel's subscription video-on-demand service, which launched as the first subscription VOD service offered by a premium channel in the United States on July 1, 2001 on Time Warner Cable's Columbia, South Carolina system.[39] It offers a selection of movies, original series and specials previously seen on the network.[60] The service is provided at no additional cost to HBO subscribers, who already regularly pay a premium fee to cable and satellite providers to have access to the channel. By reducing the frequency in which viewers were unable to find a program they would like to watch, as well as limiting cancellations to the service for the same reason, HBO launched HBO on Demand, allowing access to the channel's programming on their subscribers' schedules. HBO on Demand features a rotating selection of films, specials and series, with select new titles added each Friday alongside existing program titles held over from the previous one to two weeks.

The standard definition and high definition versions of the HBO on Demand service are available on most cable and satellite providers, delivered to customers who subscribe to the linear HBO channels at no additional charge. On January 3, 2011, HBO became the first premium channel and the first cable network to offer a 3D-only VOD service as it launched a subscription video on demand service offering select feature films in 3D to Time Warner Cable, Comcast and Verizon FiOS customers who subscribe to the HBO service.[61]

HBO Go

Main article: HBO Go
HBO Go logo

On February 18, 2010, HBO launched HBO Go, a service that carries 1,000 hours of program content available for streaming in standard or high definition, intended as a TV Everywhere service available only to existing subscribers of the linear HBO television channels. Content available on HBO Go includes theatrically released films as well as HBO original programs, movies, comedy specials, documentaries, sports and late night adult programming.[62]

On October 15, 2014 HBO announced that it would launch an over-the-top version of HBO Go in 2015; it will be distributed as a stand-alone subscription service that will not require an existing television subscription to use.[63][64]

Programming

HBO has long maintained a policy not to run R-rated films on its primary channel between 6:00 a.m. and 8:00 p.m. Eastern and Pacific Time;[65][66] this policy (which may have once stemmed from HBO's availability on analog cable tiers, while its multiplex channels generally required a digital cable subscription or at least scrambling) remains in place as of 2014, despite the existence of the V-chip and the fact that other premium services began incorporating R-rated films onto their daytime schedules starting in the mid-1980s. The policy was also applied to all TV-MA rated programs after the TV Parental Guidelines were implemented on January 1, 1997; however, the main HBO channel began airing a limited amount of TV-MA rated original series, movies and documentaries that contain some strong profanity and violence, but are largely devoid of nudity and graphic violent or sexual content on weekends before 8:00 p.m. Eastern in 2010.[67] However, HBO does occasionally rebroadcast R-rated films as early as 6:00 p.m. Eastern Time as part of its Sunday rebroadcast of the prior Saturday's movie premiere telecast, depending on the length of the film and the scheduling of any HBO original series that air after it.

Outside of HBO Family, which does not run any programs with either a TV-MA or R rating,[68] HBO's other multiplex channels will 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 – which has since become a standard in the pay television industry – in the 1970s,[specify] as part of a plan to increase subscribership of the channel, in which cable operators were granted permission to carry HBO on a local origination channel in order for those who are not subscribers to HBO to sample the service for a limited number of days; until the mid-1990s, on-air promotions featuring between programs were replaced (and later, merely interspersed) with interstitials featuring on-air hosts asking viewers to subscribe to the service. Although participation was voluntary,[69] preview events are carried by most major and some smaller pay television providers (the number of providers and the providers that choose to offer the event varies depending on the given free preview period, and may not be carried on all systems owned by a multiple system operator unless at the provider's discretion); HBO offers between three and five preview events each year (which are normally scheduled to coincide with the premiere of a new or returning original series, and in the past, a high-profile special or feature film).

Since 1992, the channel has produced HBO First Look, a series of documentary-style specials (usually running 15 to 20 minutes in length, with no set schedule) featuring a look behind-the-scenes at the making of an upcoming/recently released film (many of those that are profiled eventually air on HBO once they reach their pay cable release window), with interviews with the actors and principal crew.

Original programming

Further information: List of programs broadcast by HBO

Since 1977, HBO has produced original programming, which includes dramas and comedies in addition to its slate of theatrical films. Most of these shows are intended for adults (and, with limited exceptions, are typically assigned TV-MA ratings), and often feature high amounts of profanity, violence, sexual themes and/or nudity that would be much more difficult to get on basic cable or over-the-air broadcast channels, out of fear of losing sponsors. However some of its original programs, primarily those produced before 2001, have also been aimed at families or children; most of these type of programs have migrated to HBO Family, though HBO has produced very few newer family-oriented series for either channel since that point.

In addition to maintaining rights to films from various distributors, HBO also produces its own made-for-cable movies through HBO Films; the film division, originally named HBO Pictures, began producing original movies for the network in 1983 with the debut of The Terry Fox Story. Unlike most television films produced for cable television, most of the original movies produced by HBO have featured major film actors over the years, ranging from James Stewart to Michael Douglas. The channel also produces stand-up comedy specials, which were formerly broadcast under the On Location, HBO Comedy Hour and HBO Comedy Half-Hour banners, which periodically premiere on certain Saturday nights when a boxing match or movie is not scheduled during the late primetime slots.

One of HBO's first successful specials was The Bette Midler Show in 1976, which launched the Standing Room Only concert series. For a time in the early 1980s, HBO produced a concert special almost every other month, featuring major music stars such as Boy George and The Who. After MTV's successful rollout in 1981, the Standing Room Only series produced fewer concerts, but focused more on "world class" music events featuring artists such as Elton John, Tina Turner and Barbra Streisand, as well as fundraisers such as Farm Aid.[16] The On Location comedy specials, which presented a stand-up comedian's performance in its entirety and uncut, began in 1975 with a special starring Robert Klein. The first of twelve concert specials televised by the network featuring George Carlin aired on HBO in 1977 as part of On Location, featuring Carlin's first televised performance of his classic routine, "The Seven Words You Can Never Say on Television".[16] As other cable channels incorporated comedy specials due to their inexpensive format, HBO began to model its strategy with its comedy specials after its music programming, focusing on a few specials each year featuring popular comedians.[16]

Movie library

As of January 2014, HBO – and its sister channel Cinemax – maintains exclusive first-run film licensing agreements with network sister company Warner Bros. Entertainment (including content from subsidiaries Warner Bros. Animation, New Line Cinema since 2005, and Castle Rock Entertainment),[70] 20th Century Fox since 1979 (including content from subsidiaries 20th Century Fox Animation, Blue Sky Studios, New Regency Productions and Fox Searchlight Pictures),[71] Universal Studios since 2003 (including content from subsidiaries Universal Animation Studios, Working Title Films, Illumination Entertainment and Focus Features),[72][73] Summit Entertainment since 2013[74] and DreamWorks since 1996 (excluding films co-produced with Touchstone Pictures; Showtime holds rights to live action co-productions between DreamWorks and Touchstone).[75][76]

The first-run film output agreement with Fox was renewed by HBO for ten years on August 15, 2012 (with a provision allowing the studio to release its films through digital platforms such as iTunes and Amazon during a film's term of license with the channel for the first time),[77] and the Universal output deal was renewed for ten years on January 6, 2013 (with the exception of certain animated films that HBO can offer to pass over to the Netflix streaming service).[78] Since 2008, HBO also has exclusive pay cable rights to its own in-house theatrical films made through HBO Films.

HBO also shows sub-runs – runs of films that have already received broadcast or syndicated television airings – of theatrical films from Paramount Pictures (including content from subsidiary Republic Pictures, both for films released prior to 1998), Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures (including content from subsidiaries Walt Disney Pictures, Touchstone Pictures, Hollywood Pictures, and former subsidiary and current independently operated studio Miramax Films), Sony Pictures Entertainment (including content from subsidiaries Columbia Pictures, Sony Pictures Classics, Screen Gems and TriStar Pictures, all for films released prior to 2005), Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (including content from subsidiaries United Artists, Orion Pictures and The Samuel Goldwyn Company), and Lions Gate Entertainment (for films released prior to 2004).[79]

Films that HBO has pay cable rights to will usually also run on Cinemax during the period of its term of licensing, although some feature films from the aforementioned studios that the two channels have broadcast rights to will make their premium television debut on HBO several weeks before its premiere on Cinemax and vice versa.

Former first-run contracts

During the early years of premium cable, it was not uncommon for multiple pay television services, including HBO, Showtime and The Movie Channel (and later, Cinemax), to hold broadcast rights to the same feature films. HBO began purchasing exclusive rights to broadcast select individual films in the late 1970s; these gradually expanded to exclusive output deals (which are commonplace with North American premium channels to this day), in which a pay service enters into a licensing agreement to broadcast movies from a particular film studio over a period of years. HBO signed its first major exclusive film output deal with Columbia Pictures in the early 1980s.[80] During the 1980s, HBO also held rights to films from TriStar Pictures (whose output deal with HBO, as well as that with Columbia Pictures, expired after 2004) and Orion Pictures;[81][82] as of February 2013, rival premium channel Starz has an exclusive deal with Sony.[83]

Paramount Pictures' films released between mid-1988 and late 1997 were broadcast on HBO;[84] rival premium channel Showtime assumed pay television rights between 1998 and 2008.[85][86] HBO relinquished its deal with DreamWorks Pictures' live-action films at the end of 2010, when the distribution rights shifted from Paramount Pictures to Touchstone Pictures (whose films are broadcast by Showtime through a distribution agreement with Walt Disney Motion Pictures Group).[87] HBO's contract with DreamWorks Animation expired after 2012, at which time Netflix assumed pay television rights.[88]

Sports programming

HBO broadcasts a limited amount of sports programming as well as sports-related discussion and documentary series produced by the channel's HBO Sports division; HBO – through its parent holding company Home Box Office Inc. – also operates HBO PPV (formerly TVKO), which serves as a distributor of major boxing events for pay-per-view.

HBO's first sports broadcast was of a New York Rangers-Vancouver Canucks NHL game, transmitted to a Service Electric cable system in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania on November 8, 1972; the channel continued to run select NHL hockey games through the mid-1970s. HBO has long been known for its telecasts of boxing matches (which usually air on Saturday nights every two to three weeks on average), including those shown on its flagship sports program 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 be broadcast via satellite. That same year, HBO began airing coverage of Wimbledon; it held rights to coverage of the tennis tournament through 1999, when it lost the rights to sister network TNT (which is owned by Time Warner's Turner Broadcasting System subsidiary).

In 1973, HBO aired a World Wide Wrestling Federation event from Madison Square Garden, headlined by a match between George Steele and Pedro Morales. During the mid-1970s, HBO aired several basketball games from the National Basketball Association and American Basketball Association (notably, the last ABA Finals game in 1976, between the New York Nets and the Denver Nuggets). HBO also aired PBA bowling events during the 1970s; Dick Stockton was the play-by-play announcer and Skee Foremsky served as the color commentator.[89]

In 1977, HBO premiered the channel's longest-running program and its first sports-related documentary and analysis series Inside the NFL; HBO canceled the program in February 2008 after 30 seasons (the program was later acquired by rival premium channel Showtime, which began airing the series in September 2008). HBO expanded its boxing slate with the launch of Boxing After Dark in 1996, a program which showcases fights from up-and-coming boxing talents.

The network would build upon Inside the NFL with debut of additional sports talk and documentary programs: Race for the Pennant (concerning the MLB season; it ran from 1978 until 1992), Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel (which debuted in 1998), On the Record with Bob Costas (which debuted in 2001, and was revamped as Costas Now in 2005 until the series' end in 2009) and Joe Buck Live (which ran for one season in 2009). In 2001, HBO and NFL Films began to jointly produce the documentary series Hard Knocks, which follows an individual NFL team each season during training camp and their preparations for the upcoming football season.[16][90]

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)[16] and Ross Greenburg.

Documentaries

Filmmaker Alexandra Pelosi and former New Jersey Governor Jim McGreevey at the New York premiere of Pelosi's HBO documentary about McGreevey, Fall to Grace, in March 2013.

Many of HBO's documentary series appear under the America Undercover brand, the regular features of which have been Real Sex (a late night magazine-formatted series of specials that ran from 1992 to 2009, which frankly explored a variety of mainstream and non-mainstream sexual matters[16]) and Autopsy. One of the most notable America Undercover specials was 1985's Soldiers in Hiding, focusing on homeless veterans of the Vietnam War living in the wilderness, which won the first Academy Award for a cable television service in the Best Documentary category (although HBO has had some of its documentaries enter limited theatrical release to qualify for Oscar nominations in later years).[16] HBO is also noted for its Sports of the 20th Century documentary brand. 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, and featured Mia Hamm, Kristine Lilly, Brandi Chastain, Joy Fawcett and Julie Foudy.

HBO's first successful documentary aired in 1979, the six-part series Time Was, which featured host Dick Cavett being inserted into seminal events occurring between the 1920s and the 1970s. 1981's She's Nobody's Baby, produced by Ms. magazine, was another well-known documentary tracing the evolution in the societal role of American women during the 20th Century; the special earned HBO the first Peabody Award won by a pay television service.[91] Since then, it has brought home numerous Peabody Awards.[92] HBO had also broadcast informational documentaries produced in partnership with Consumer Reports starting in 1980, focusing on subjects from product safety to finance to health.[16] One such documentary, AIDS: Everything You and Your Family Need to Know…But Were Afraid to Ask, which aired in 1987 at the height of the AIDS epidemic in the U.S., provided factual information on AIDS and HIV and was hosted by then-surgeon general C. Everett Koop.[16]

In 2004, guided by human rights activist Ansar Burney, an HBO team for Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel 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 worldwide attention to the plight of child camel jockeys in the Middle East and helped the Ansar Burney Trust to convince the governments of Qatar and the UAE to end the use of children in this sport.

In 2006, film director Spike Lee made a two-part four-hour documentary on Hurricane Katrina called When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts. Also in 2006, documentary artist Lauren Greenfield directed a feature-length film about four young women struggling with eating disorders in the Renfrew Clinic in Florida, called Thin. 2008 saw the U.S. television premiere of Baghdad High, a documentary that depicted the lives of four boys attending a high school in Baghdad, Iraq, over the course of one year in the form of a video diary that was filmed by the boys themselves, who were given video cameras for the project.[93]

In November 2008, HBO paid low seven figures for U.S. television rights to Amy Rice and Alicia Sams's documentary, By the People: The Election of Barack Obama. The film covers Obama's 2006 trip to Africa, his presidential primary campaign, the 2008 general election and his inauguration. The documentary received theatrical release in New York City and Los Angeles, and aired on HBO in November 2009.[94]

In November 2012, HBO aired a four-part documentary titled Witness, each part of which is devoted to covering photojournalists in four conflict regions: Juarez[disambiguation needed], Libya, South Sudan and Rio de Janeiro.[95] On March 28, 2013, the channel premiered the Alexandra Pelosi-directed documentary about former New Jersey Governor Jim McGreevey, Fall to Grace.[96][97] On April 10, 2013, HBO aired 50 Children: The Rescue Mission of Mr. and Mrs. Kraus, a documentary about the story of Gilbert and Eleanor Kraus, a Jewish couple from Philadelphia who traveled to Nazi Germany in 1939 and, with the help of the B'rith Sholom fraternal organization, saved Jewish children in Vienna from likely death in the Holocaust by finding them new homes in Philadelphia. In April 2013, the channel aired a documentary about the purported abuse and brutal treatment of elephants titled An Apology to Elephants.

Other ventures

In addition to its linear television channels, HBO has entered into other ventures:

Television channels

Take 2

In April 1979, HBO launched its first attempt at a spin-off service, Take 2. Designed as a family-oriented mini-pay service, Take 2 was essentially formatted as an alternative to HBO, without any R-rated program content. The channel was ultimately deemed a major failure due to low subscribership and limited cable carriage, and ceased operations late that summer.[80] HBO management analysized the mistakes that led to Take 2's downfall, which would result in the development of the network's second and more successful attempt at a secondary pay service, the movie-focused Cinemax, which launched on August 1, 1980.

Festival

Logo of HBO's early family-friendly service Festival.
Example of Festival's monthly guide provided to subscribers (January 1988).

In 1987, HBO launched Festival,[98] a separate premium channel that was distinctively programmed to provide family-friendly fare, which featured classic and recent hit movies, as well as HBO's original specials (which were branded when broadcast on the channel under the banner "Centerstage", which featured stand-up comedy, concert specials and ice skating shows) and documentaries.

Festival, whose on-air slogan was Quality Entertainment You Welcome Home,[99] had also broadcast collections of feature films featuring a particular movie star (known as "Star Salutes"). What differed Festival from HBO was that the former channel was programmed as a family-oriented service. Atypical for a premium service, Festival featured edited versions of R-rated movies that were recut in order to fit a PG rating and allowed only high-quality series, specials and movies to be broadcast on the channel's schedule.[100]

As Festival was designed as a mini-pay premium service (formatted similarly to Take 2 before it), the cost of a monthly subscription of the channel was also priced lower than that of HBO and Cinemax. Festival provided its subscribers with a color 20-page monthly program guide. Like HBO, Festival also ran occasional free preview periods, such as the October 30 to November 2, 1987 preview hosted by Tony Randall. The channel suffered from insufficient cable carriage as only a few providers carried Festival; as such, it could not compete with then-fellow premium service The Disney Channel, which also maintained a family-oriented programming format. Festival would eventually shut down in late 1988.[27][98]

The Comedy Channel / Comedy Central

In 1989, HBO created The Comedy Channel, a cable channel that featured clips excerpted from stand-up comedy sets, comedic feature films and television series (using a programming model similar to the original format of MTV),[27] which launched on November 15 of that year. The channel competed with another startup comedy-oriented cable channel that debuted the following year, Viacom-owned Ha!: The TV Comedy Network, which focused on reruns of older network sitcoms. Both channels suffered from insufficient cable carriage (both Ha! and The Comedy Channel each had fewer than 10 million subscribers). This resulted in Viacom and HBO's decision to merge Ha! and The Comedy Channel into a single channel called CTV: The Comedy Network, which debuted on April 1, 1991;[101] the channel subsequently changed its name three months later to Comedy Central due to confusion and potential legal issues with Canadian broadcaster, the CTV Television Network. Time Warner/HBO exited the venture when Viacom bought out its 50% stake in Comedy Central for $1.23 billion in April 2003.[102]

Television and film production

HBO formed the production company HBO Independent Productions in 1990, which mainly served to produce sitcoms for broadcast television and basic cable (which had included Martin, Roc, The Ben Stiller Show and Everybody Loves Raymond). HBO Downtown Productions was formed one year later, producing comedy specials for HBO, as well as program content for Comedy Central.

HBO also operates HBO Films, which was established in 1999 as a reconfiguration and consolidation of two separate movie divisions operated by Home Box Office Inc., HBO NYC Productions and HBO Pictures. HBO also operated another film division called HBO Showcase, which began operations in 1986; it was shut down in 1996 and was relaunched as HBO NYC Productions.

HBO also participated in a number of joint ventures in film production:

  • In 1982, HBO entered into a joint venture with Columbia Pictures and CBS Theatrical Films to form Tri-Star Pictures (the hyphen was dropped from the name in 1991), in order to pool resources to split the ever-growing costs of making movies. Tri-Star's first production, The Natural, was released in 1984. CBS sold its ownership stake in the studio in 1985.[103] In April 1987, Tri-Star entered into the television production business with the formation of Tri-Star Television. In December 1987, HBO relinquished its stake in Tri-Star with Columbia Pictures buying its venture shares and merging Columbia and Tri-Star into Columbia Pictures Entertainment. as of 2014, TriStar now operates as a production arm of Sony Pictures Entertainment.
  • In 1983, HBO entered into a limited partnership with Thorn EMI to create Silver Screen Partners, which was the first LP of its kind that was developed to finance the production of feature films. The studio only released seven films between 1983 and 1986, most of which were not commercial or critical successes, with the minor exception of the 1985 film Volunteers.[80]
  • In 1993, HBO invested in upstart film production company Savoy Pictures (which was founded by Victor A. Kaufman and Lewis J. Korman). The studio held investments in other properties including Savoy Broadcasting, a minority-owned communications firm, that evolved into SF Broadcasting (which was operated in a joint venture with the Fox Broadcasting Company, and affiliated its four stations with that network in 1996). Savoy Pictures was unable to experience success with any of its feature film releases, and eventually folded in 1997.[80]
  • In 2005, HBO Films and New Line Cinema formed Picturehouse, a worldwide theatrical distribution company for high-quality independent films. The company was shut down in 2008 as part of the consolidation of New Line with its sister studio Warner Bros. Entertainment (Picturehouse CEO Bob Berney would later resurrect the studio as an independent entity from Time Warner).[80]

Home video

As objections to the advent of home video from factions of the entertainment industry began to die down, in November 1984, HBO partnered with independent film distributor Thorn EMI to create Thorn EMI/HBO Video.[104] Thorn EMI cut various distribution agreements with smaller film production companies that did not have their own home video units, such as Orion Pictures and New Line Cinema.[27] In 1986, Cannon Films bought out Thorn EMI's interest in the unit, which was accordingly renamed HBO/Cannon Video. Cannon dropped out of the venture by 1987 after the studio took a financial hit following its attempt at a series of larger budget films that did not experience box office success; the unit was then renamed HBO Video.[27] Over time, HBO Video (which eventually became HBO Home Entertainment by the early 2010s) shifted away from releasing films from independent studios to releasing HBO's catalog of original programs on DVD and Blu-ray Disc .[27]

Merchandising

Various products have been marketed that have used the HBO trademark and/or are based around the channel's programming. In 2005, HBO entered into an agreement with Cingular Wireless to establish HBO Mobile.[105] Operating as a pay service (as the channel itself is), HBO Mobile featured information on HBO's original programming (including episode guides), mobile wallpapers and ringtones voiced by cast members of the channel's series (HBO Mobile also operated a similar service, HBO Family Mobile, which offered full-length episodes of the channel's children's programming). That same year, Mattel and Screenlife released a version of the DVD interactive game Scene It?, featuring trivia relating to HBO's original series.

Branding

When HBO launched in 1972, its original logo was merely the channel's full name "Home Box Office" and a ticket stub surrounded by a marquee light design. In 1975, the original version of its current logo (designed by Bemis Balkind) was introduced, using an uppercase bold 'HBO' text with a circle inside the 'O', which in turn cuts into the 'B'. The logo was modified in 1980 (although it did not completely replace the original version until 1981), with the 'B' and the 'O' becoming full letterforms, albeit continuing to be attached to each other. The simplicity of the logo makes it fairly easy to duplicate, something HBO has taken advantage of many times over the years.

The logo became iconic due to perhaps the network's most famous program opening sequence, nicknamed "HBO in Space", which was used from October 20, 1982 to September 30, 1997 and produced in 1981 by New York City production firm Liberty Studios.[106] The original full version begins with a window shot of a family (sometimes only a husband and wife) sitting down to watch TV, with the cable box atop their television set tuned to HBO (this scene was replaced by a cloudscape that faded into the city sequence in late 1983). It transitions to a fly-through over a constructed model cityscape (including a movie theater with an "HBO Theater" marquee that features the logo) and countryside, before panning towards a star-filled sky; a starburst (or "stargate effect") then occurs, unveiling a chrome-plated HBO logo in starship form that rotates into view; colored light beams encircle the side of the "O" that then reveal its interior, flashing to a partially animated sequence featuring more lights racing counter-clockwise on a silver axis, which reveals the underlined text "HBO Feature Presentation" or another program type (such as "Standing Room Only", "HBO Special" or "On Location"). Additional beams sweep across the text and shine, with flashes from more streaking beams causing a fade to black. A shortened version of this sequence begins with the view of the night sky. Most variants of this sequence were discontinued in 1986, except for the feature presentation (which was relegated to primetime films), "Saturday Night Movie" and "Sunday Night Movie" variants. Many versions of the intro are available on YouTube, including one uploaded to HBO's official YouTube channel.[107] The accompanying fanfare – originally composed for Score Productions by Ferdinand Jay Smith III of Jay Advertising – has become a musical signature for HBO, and has been used in feature presentation, upcoming program and evening schedule bumpers, and network IDs since 1998 with various arrangements from horns to piano being used over the years.

Another well-known HBO program opener, "Neon Lights", began movies airing outside of primetime from late October or early November 1986, to the fall of 1997. The sequence, set to a synth and electric guitar theme, begins with a purple HBO logo on a film strip with blue, green and pink light rays shooting through it as the strip rotates out of view; the lights shoot through several glowing CG slots until a flash of light hits a field of spheres in varying colors, which zoom out to form a light purple HBO logo overlaid by a cursive magenta "Movie" script against a black background with light purple spheres in rows of three.[108] From 1997 to 1998, HBO used several feature presentation bumpers designed by Pittard Sullivan featuring the network logo in different situations (such as a fish in water, a celebrity in a limousine, a large HBO logo chasing a man and a neon HBO logo on the rooftop of a building); these sequences were also used by the network as IDs from 1997 to 2002, and in upcoming program and evening schedule bumpers until 2000.

From 1998 to April 1, 2011, HBO used a Pittard Sullivan-designed CGI feature presentation bumper sequence. The version that was seen regularly featured a slowing flyover of the ground as several spotlights rapidly turn on, before facing an HBO logo-shaped lake; a 3D animation of the "Feature Presentation" text then appears. The full version, seen only during weekend primetime films (mainly during film premieres on Saturdays), started with a movie theater facade featuring a marquee that reads "HBO Feature Presentation" in capital letters. After a zoom-in to a box office booth, a flyover begins at a country road passing under an "H"-shaped tower; followed by a snowy mountain road jumping over a cliff, traveling through a "B"-shaped tunnel on the other side; and continues with a trek through a desert road reaching an "O"-shaped tanker truck. An urban neighborhood setting is then seen with skyscrapers visible in the background, eventually reaching a road that becomes a bridge upon the city's downtown area. The same animation that is seen in the shorter version then plays as usual.[109]

The sequence was replaced on April 2, 2011 by work from Jesse Vartanian (who also designed CGI teaser commercials for HBO's premiere telecast of the 2010 film Avatar), with a much shorter opening sequence accompanied by soft orchestral music, showing a dark background with faint light auroras around the HBO logo and a simple "Feature Presentation" text animation. This design was a part of a new graphics package implemented across the HBO multiplex channels on that date.[110]

Unlike other pay television networks (including the multiplex channels of sister channel Cinemax), HBO does not brand its programming with on-screen logo bugs of the main network and each respective multiplex channel – although its multiplex channels do display logo bugs during promotional breaks between programs.[111]

Network slogans

Source:[112]

International versions

Main article: HBO (international)

Since 1991, HBO has overseen a number of partnerships that operate HBO-branded television networks around the world. As HBO was launched in new markets, the brand has been used in several countries. HBO has established channels in various countries worldwide including Brazil, Canada, Scandinavia, the Caribbean, Eastern Europe, Pakistan, India, Mexico, the Netherlands and Southeast Asia. HBO also licenses its programming to air on certain other broadcast and cable channels outside the United States (such as Sky Atlantic in the United Kingdom), regardless as to whether an international version of HBO exists in the country.

See also

References

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