Friday, 14 September 2007

HBO
(Home Box Office)
About HBO:
HBO is aired in Latin America, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Romania (and Moldova), Poland, Slovenia, Croatia, Serbia, Bulgaria and South Asia(Bangladesh, India and Pakistan). HBO plans to launch international operations in Europe (France, Spain, Germany and Italy).
HBO has already begun to deliver content to cable customers in the UK on the Tiscali TV IPTV and Virgin Media Cable platforms via HBO On Demand, showing programming which has already been aired in the UK along with programming never seen on UK TV before.

The texts it produces:









Rome, Sopranos, BIg love, Six Feet Under, Entourage, Lucky Loui, The Wire, The Comeback, Deadwood, Family Bonds, Curb Your Enthusiasm, Sex and The City, Da Ali G Show, Oz, Real Time with Bill Maher, Def Poetry, The Bad Boys Of Comedy.

http://www.hbo.com/corpinfo/faq.shtml



Who owns HBO?

Charles Dolan (founder):






In the early 1970s, Mr. Dolan founded Home Box Office Inc (HBO) the first premium programming service in the cable television industry. After selling Home Box Office to Time-Life, Inc. (now Time Warner)
Charles Dolan was one of the first to believe in cable sports programming and twenty-four-hour news channels. He is best known as the owner of Cablevision Systems Corporation, a large cable television operator in the New York City area.

http://www.answers.com/topic/charles-dolan

However, Dolan sold HBO to Time Warner Inc. who also own CNN.

Officers:Chairman and CEO: Richard D. (Dick) ParsonsPresident, COO, and Director: Jeffrey L. (Jeff) BewkesEVP and CFO: Wayne H. Pace
Competitors:News Corp.,Viacom, and Disney.

HBO also had a couple of joint ventures:
First, with the formation of TriStar Pictures with Columbia Pictures and CBS. Columbia later bought the two-thirds interest of the studio.


Then, HBO merged its The Comedy Channel with Viacom's HA! cable network to form Comedy Central. In 2003, Viacom bought HBO's half of the Comedy Central channel and merged it to its MTV Networks unit.


HBO also had a joint venture with Liberty Media and many major cable companies in Movietime channel (now E!). In 1997, The Walt Disney Company and Comcast purchased control of E!.

In 2005, HBO and New Line Cinema launched Picturehouse, an independent film distributor. It was formerly Fine Line Features when the company was fully owned by New Line.

http://www.answers.com/topic/time-warner-inc?cat=biz-fin

History of the institution:

In 1965, cable pioneer Charles Dolan won the franchise to build a cable system in lower Manhattan. The new system, named Sterling Manhattan Cable by Mr. Dolan, was the nation's first urban underground cable system. He laid underground cable beneath the streets of Manhattan because television signals were blocked by many tall buildings. Time Life Inc., in the same year, purchased 20 percent of Dolan's company.

In September 1973 Time Life, Inc. completed to pay service. HBO was soon the fastest show in America on 14 systems in New York and Pennsylvania.

On December 13 1975 HBO became the first TV network to broadcast its signals via satellite when it showed the "Thrilla in Manila" boxing match between Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier. On December 28, 1981, HBO expanded its programming schedule to 24 hours a day, seven days per week. HBO was one of the first cable TV networks to broadcast a high-definition version of its channel.

Originally, HBO was part of Time Inc. When Time merged with Warner Communications in 1989, it became part of Time Warner and still is now.

http://www.answers.com/topic/hbo-4

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