Dear dwlt-ga;
Thank you for allowing me an opportunity to answer your interesting question.
Home Box Office, the world-renowned broadcast phenomenon that would
eventually become known affectionately to the world as ?HBO?, began
locally in 1972 in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, as a small and little
known pay-TV option with a sports focus. In November of that same year
the service was elated to be airing a National Hockey League game from
Madison Square garden to 365 local subscribers. They believed this
large customer base to be a relatively of a successful and profitable
entrepreneurship. Little did they dream that in only three years,
through the advent of microwave technology that HBO would be airing
sports programs to thousands of homes when people flocked to the
company to have an opportunity to watch the heavyweight boxing
championship fight between Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier in Manila via
something called a ?satellite? when. This marked a major turning point
in the success of HBO and proved that people were indeed interested in
their service and would pay for the chance to see broadcasts that were
not previously available to them by more common and conventional
means. As such, HBO became the first broadcast company in the
television industry to use satellites exclusively as a means of
transmitting regular programming.
In time, the successes of HBO spawned the birth of other broadcast
companies when the competition saw how lucrative the industry had
become. Cable became the primary medium for outlets like Showtime and
The Movie Channel when these two companies struck a deal with
Paramount Pictures for exclusive rights to all motion pictures
distributed. HBO, in an effort to stay on top, formed it?s own motion
picture company in 1983 in conjunction with Columbia Pictures and CBS.
They named their company, TriStar. Eventually HBO beat their
competition at their own game landing exclusive rights contracts with
the biggies such as Silver Screen Partners, Columbia Pictures, Savoy
Pictures, and the ever enormous, 20th Century Fox. The level playing
field was short lived though and cable companies were being hurt
economically be the advent of the VCR. Video cassettes became so
easily obtained that the profits of the cable networks began to
decline while HBO?s revenues went sharply higher. The reason HBO
weathered the video storm so well is because they wisely predicted the
consumer trend and in 1984, in conjunction with Thorn EMI
Entertainment, formed their own video company called EMI/HBO Home
Video (known as HBO Home Video today). This division of HBO allowed
the company to acquire and distribute its own home video programs in
both the United States and Canada thus profiting from the video end of
the industry as well.
By now, HBO was obviously out of the sports-only arena and was deeply
involved in motion pictures. While this proved profitable beyond what
could ever have been imagined in the beginning, HBO wanted to try
something new. In 1990 they formed HBO Independent Productions whose
sole purpose was to develop new cutting edge television series ? the
first of their kind anywhere ? which would push the envelope for
broadcast television. The first such series to test the water was Roc,
a gritty, no-holds barred drama/sit-com that dealt with tough issues
like racism, addiction, and other hard taboo subjects of the time. The
show aired on the Fox Network (then owned by partner 20th Century
Fox). The success of this show and others opened the door to their
acquisition of Citadel Entertainment in 1991 and HBO was contracted to
develop series for outlets other than themselves. Such notable
networks as CBS, ABC, and cable channels TNT, USA and Lifetime all
benefited from HBO expertise in this field and reaped great rewards
for what they received.
Today HBO is arguably the reigning television giant, not only because
of their services but because they are seen by most as the leading
innovator of new technologies, marketing strategies and programming
concepts. Their frontiers seem boundless and as the techno-age evolves
to even greater heights, it seems apparent that Home Box Office will
continue to be at the forefront of success.
I hope you find that my research exceeds your expectations. If you
have any questions about my research please post a clarification
request prior to rating the answer. Otherwise I welcome your rating
and your final comments and I look forward to working with you again
in the near future. Thank you for bringing your question to us.
Best regards;
Tutuzdad-ga ? Google Answers Researcher
INFORMATION SOURCES
THE MUSEUM OF BROADCAST COMMUNICATIONS: HOME BOX OFFICE
http://www.museum.tv/archives/etv/H/htmlH/homeboxoffi/homeboxoffi.htm
THE MUSEUM OF BROADCAST COMMUNICATIONS: ANCILLARY MARKETS
http://www.museum.tv/archives/etv/A/htmlA/ancillarymar/ancillarymar.htm
HOOVER?S ONLINE: HOME BOX OFFICE
http://www.hoovers.com/hbo/--ID__104038--/free-co-factsheet.xhtml
INTERNET MOVIE DATABASE: ROC
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0101184/plotsummary
SEARCH STRATEGY
SEARCH ENGINE USED:
Google ://www.google.com
SEARCH TERMS USED:
HOME BOX OFFICE, HBO, ?STARTED IN?, ?BEGAN IN?, DEBUTED, HISTORY |
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