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 Warner Bros. Discovery subsidiary Home Box Office, Inc. and operated through sister subsidiary Warner Bros. Discovery 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; all of which are permitted to refer to themselves as the "Home of HBO" since 2010, such as with Sky Atlantic and Now TV in parts of Europe, Fox Showcase and Binge in Australia, and Amazon Prime Video in France.[1][2]
Like its flagship U.S. channel, most of the international channels maintain a subscription-based model, in which they do not accept traditional advertising and offer programming that includes theatrically released motion pictures, original television programs (both licensed by the U.S. service and produced for individual regional channels), made-for-cable movies, documentaries, and occasional stand-up comedy and concert specials. While HBO maintains international distribution rights for its original programs, the terms of its licensing agreements with film studios only retains it the right to broadcast them within the United States and the territories of Puerto Rico, Guam and the U.S. Virgin Islands, therefore film rights for the international channels must be licensed separately.[3]
Branded services
The Americas
Brazil
HBO Brazil was launched in 1991 as a partnership between Grupo Abril's TVA, Time Warner and Sony. It was developed as an analogue pay channel, but used UHF broadcast frequencies and ran its programming for nine hours each day. After the Brazilian financial crisis of the late 1990s, Grupo Abril sold its share in the network to Time Warner.
Canada
Canadian rights to HBO-owned and -distributed programming are held by Bell Media, the mass-media unit of telecom company Bell Canada. Programming is offered through Bell's Crave pay television service, which includes an HBO-branded multiplex channel
Former services
Asia
Nepal, India, Pakistan and the Maldives
HBO South Asia was a regional pay television network operated by Home Box Office Inc.'s HBO Asia unit, which aired theatrical feature films from America and South Asia. Singapore based HBO Channels are telecast in Nepal. The network ceased operations on 15 December 2020[8]
Nepal, India, Pakistan and the Maldives
HBO South Asia was a regional pay television network operated by Home Box Office Inc.'s HBO Asia unit, which aired theatrical feature films from America and South Asia. Singapore based HBO Channels are telecast in Nepal. The network ceased operations on 15 December 2020[8]
Program licensing partnerships
Europe
United Kingdom, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Luxembourg, Italy and Ireland
Under a long-term agreement until March 26, 2026 between HBO and Sky Group (Comcast), Sky operates Sky Atlantic which broadcasts the majority of HBO's programming. Sky Atlantic is available in the UK, Austria, Switzerland, Germany, Luxembourg, Ireland and Italy.
In February 2011, Sky Atlantic launched on the Sky platforms in the United Kingdom and Ireland, which maintains a distribution deal with HBO to offer the majority of its programming on the channel. Under the five-year agreement between HBO and Sky, newer HBO programs will air on Sky Atlantic before airing on other television channels within the United Kingdom and Ireland.
Prior to 2011, TG4 in Ireland had a long-term agreement to broadcast HBO programming free-to-air, this ceased following the creation of Sky Atlantic.
In Italian-speaking Switzerland, HBO shows are broadcast on
International SVOD services
In 2005, the HBO Mobile wireless service launched via Vodafone in the United Kingdom, Ireland, Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Italy, Spain and South Africa, and via SK Telecom in Korea in 2006. In 2006, HBO's subscription video-on-demand service HBO On Demand launched in Israel on HOT, marking the first standalone HBO service to be offered outside the United States. The service launched in the United Kingdom in 2007 via BT Vision, TalkTalk TV and Virgin Media, and then rolled out to Cyprus in 2008 through PrimeTv of PrimeTel Ltd. In Australia, HBO Originals are carried on Foxtel's Foxtel Now and Binge services. In India, Home Box Office's self-owned Originals are carried on 21st Century Fox's Hotstar from 2016 to 2023, which rebranded to Disney+ Hotstar since early 2020 following
External links
References
- HBO: Home to Groundbreaking Series, Movies, Comedies & Documentaries HBO, retrieved 2013-03-16^
- AT&T Inc. Annual Report on Form 10-K for Fiscal Year 2018 February 20, 2019, retrieved January 15, 2020^
- Bill Mesce. It's Not TV: HBO, The Company That Changed Television: Expanding The Brand (Part 2)