HBO has been a pioneer in television for 50 years, as one of the first paid TV networks to air uncut movies, live events, concerts and comedy specials. The emergence of cable in the 1960s and 70s coincided with the birth of HBO when Chuck Dolan, while trying to wire half of Manhattan for cable, invented HBO as part of Dolan’s Sterling Communications and Time Inc. HBO debuted on November 8, 1972, with 344 subscribers in Wilkes Barre, Pennsylvania.
The Evolution of HBO
Throughout the 1970s and early 80s, HBO aired mostly uncut and uncensored movies, live events from boxing to concerts to comedy specials. Since HBO was a paid service, the company didn’t have to worry about appeasing advertisers in its early years. In the late 1980s, with the emergence of video rental stores, HBO’s business was being undercut. The solution was to make original series. The first of which were “Dream On” and “The Larry Sanders Show,” which were followed by “The Sopranos” and “Sex and the City”. In the 2000s, HBO continued to dominate the zeitgeist in entertainment with hit shows like “Game of Thrones,” “True Blood,” “Veep” and “Insecure.”
HBO’s Merger and Rebranding
Over the years, HBO has been part of several parent companies. In 2023, HBO is now under Warner Bros. Discovery, and its CEO, David Zaslav, is looking at deep cost-cutting measures and the rebranding of HBO Max to chip away at the estimated $55 billion in debt it inherited from AT&T. Despite the turbulence, HBO continues to produce award-winning content and has amassed close to 80 million subscribers across HBO and HBO Max.
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