HBO

HBO’s logo used since 1980 (designed by Gerard Huerta)

## Cable

### Available on all U.S. cable systems

Consult your local cable provider or program listings source for channel availability

### Verizon FiOS

899–913 (HD)
400–413 (SD)

## IPTV

### AT&T U-verse

1802–1815 (HD)
802–815 (SD)

## Home Box Office, Inc.

### Fate

Merged into WarnerMedia Content as a business segment

### Headquarters

New York City, New York,
United States

### Key people

Richard Plepler (CEO)
John K. Billock (President of HBO U.S. Group)
Casey Bloys (President of HBO Programming)

### Products

Pay television
Television Production

### Parent

WarnerMedia Content
(WarnerMedia)

### Divisions

HBO
Cinemax
Red by HBO
HBO Latin America Group

### Website

homeboxoffice.com

**HBO** is an American premium cable and satellite television network owned by AT&T’s WarnerMedia via WarnerMedia Content. The program which featured on the network consists primarily of theatrically released motion pictures and original television shows, along with made-for-cable movies, documentaries and occasional 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. In 2016, HBO had an adjusted operating income of US$1.93 billion, compared to the US$1.88 billion it accrued in 2015. HBO has 130 million subscribers worldwide as of 2016. The network provides seven 24-hour multiplex channels, including HBO Comedy, HBO Latino, HBO Signature, and HBO Family. It launched the streaming service HBO Now in April 2015 and has over 2 million subscribers in the United States as of February 2017.

## Overview

As of July 2015, HBO's programming is available to approximately 36,493,000 households with at least one television set (31.3% of all cable, satellite and telco customers) in the United States (36,013,000 subscribers or 30.9% of all households with pay television service receive at least HBO's primary channel), making it the second largest premium channel in the United States (Encore, owned by Starz Inc., reaches 40.54 million pay television households ). In addition to its U.S. subscriber base, HBO distributes content in at least 151 countries, with approximately 130 million subscribers worldwide.

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 (FCC) requires that cable providers allow subscribers to get just "limited" basic cable (a base programming tier that includes local, and in some areas, out-of-market 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 have purposefully offered the network in such a manner utilizing this law, as it offered a bundled cable/Internet package that included limited basic service and HBO from October 2013 to July 2014, or January of the latter year in some markets). Cable providers can require the use of a converter box—usually digital—in order to receive HBO.

HBO also provides its content through digital media; the channel maintains HBO Go, a video on demand streaming service available as a website and slate of mobile apps exclusively to existing subscribers of the linear channel suite and a separate, but similar standalone service, HBO Now, which launched in April 2015 as a subscription streaming platform that does not require a subscription to the HBO television service.

HBO also maintains near-ubiquitous distribution in hotels across the United States through agreements with DirecTV, Echostar, SONIFI Solutions, Satellite Management Services, Inc., Telerent Leasing Corporation, Total Media Concepts and World Cinema as well as cable providers that maintain hospitality service arrangements with individual hotels and local franchises of national hotel/motel chains; although Home Box Office Inc. does not keep tallies of national hotel distribution numbers, LodgeNet (now SONIFI Solutions) estimated in 2008 that HBO was available to 98% of all hotels that at least receive cable or satellite service via the content and connectivity solutions company. Since June 2018, through a content partnership with Enseo, HBO Go is also distributed to some Marriott International hotels around the U.S.; guests staying in Marriott hotels that have access to HBO Go on connected in-room TV sets are not required to sign into the system in order to access content.

Many HBO programs have been syndicated to other networks and broadcast television stations (usually after some editing for running time and/or content that indecency regulations enforced by jurisdictional telecommunications agencies or self-imposed by network Standards and Practices departments may prohibit from airing on broadcast and cable networks), 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 2015 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.

## Programming

HBO's programming schedule currently consists largely of theatrically released feature films—which occupy the majority of its daily schedule—and original series primarily aimed at adults (including, as of November 2017, dramas such as *Game of Thrones* and *Westworld*, and comedies such as *Insecure*, *Veep*, *Ballers*, *Last Week Tonight* and *Silicon Valley*). In addition, HBO also carries original made-for-TV movies, sports events and sports-centric documentary and magazine series, documentary films, behind-the-scenes specials, and concert and stand-up comedy specials. The network primarily airs most of its original programs on its main channel after 8:00pm. Eastern and Pacific Time, although it airs original series and made-for-cable movies as well as certain documentaries during the daytime hours; these programs also air at various times on HBO's multiplex channels. HBO Signature, HBO Family, HBO Comedy and HBO Zone also each carry archived HBO programming, airing repeats of former original series and specials dating back to the 1990s.

HBO has long maintained a policy not to run R-rated films on its primary channel between 6:00a.m. and 8:00pm. Eastern and Pacific Time; 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 2016, despite the existence of the V-chip and other premium services having incorporated 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 8:00pm. Eastern in 2010. HBO began occasionally rebroadcasting R-rated films as early as 4:00pm. Eastern Time in 2012, 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. In 2017, the channel expanded its carriage of R-rated films to as early as 4:00pm. Eastern Time, regardless of the day but still on a periodic basis.

Outside of HBO Family, which does not run any programs with either a TV-MA or R rating, 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 1973, as part of a plan to increase subscribership of the channel. Cable providers were originally granted permission to carry HBO on a local origination channel in order for those who are not subscribers the ability to view the channel for a limited number of days; with the advent of digital cable and satellite, providers now unencrypt the designated slots of each HBO channel during preview periods. Until the mid-1990s, on-air promotions featured 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, 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 currently offers between three and five preview events each year to participating providers (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).

The network also produces short segments promoting new movies with the cooperation of the film studios that hold releasing rights to the projects. These usually consist of either interstitial segments providing a behind-the-scenes look at the making of an upcoming/recently released film, with interviews with the actors and principal crew, or red carpet coverage, which are almost universally produced by studios with which HBO and Cinemax maintain exclusive premium television broadcast rights. Depending on their length or content, these are either aired as part of the feature segment *HBO News* (formerly titled *HBO Entertainment News* from 1988 to 2007), which airs during extended promotional breaks between programs and runs between three and five minutes, or as part of *HBO First Look*, a series of documentary-style interstitial specials (usually running 15 to 20 minutes in length, with no set schedule) that debuted in 1992. These segments, particularly episodes of *First Look*, have also often been included as bonus features on DVD and Blu-ray releases of the films that were profiled (many of which have aired on HBO and Cinemax once they reached their pay-cable distribution windows), though broadcasts of these interstitials have begun to be reduced to only a few episodes per year as HBO has focused on its higher-profile, long-form original programming instead and studios have internally produced behind-the-scenes featurettes for their films for exclusive physical and digital media release.

During the earlier years of the network, various short films would be aired in-between films and other programming, originally billed as *Something Short and Special*. Around 1980, *InterMissions*, as they were now called, were bannered in two groupings: *Video Jukebox*, for when music videos were played (these segments were eventually separated from the other intermission shorts and gained various longform spinoffs, also titled as *Video Jukebox* or variants thereof), and *Special*, for the various short films. By 1984, the shorts had largely been reduced to comedic shorts (originally named *HBO Comedy Shorts* and then as *HBO Short Takes*, which used a set of different animated intros) and *HBO Shorts for Kids*, seen largely before and during family-oriented programming. By the end of the decade, intermission shorts had largely vanished from the service.

During the "Executive Actions" symposium held by *The Washington Post* and George Washington University in April 2015 (shortly after the launch of the HBO Now streaming service), HBO CEO Richard Plepler said that he does not want the network to be akin to Netflix in which users "binge watch" its television shows and film content, saying "I don't think it would have been a great thing for HBO or our brand if that had been gobbled up in the first week[...] I think it was very exciting for the viewer to have that mystery held out for an extended period of time." Pleper cited that he feels that binge watching does not correlate with the culture of HBO and HBO watchers.

## See also

* Captain Midnight (HBO), a 1986 incident in which HBO's signal was jammed to protest the scrambling of its signal for satellite dish users
* HBO Boxing
* HBO Films
* HBO Canada
* List of programs broadcast by HBO

## External links

* Official website

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