HBO Warning: You are not logged in. Your IP address will be publicly visible if you make any edits. If you log in or create an account, your edits will be attributed to your username, along with other benefits.Anti-spam check. Do not fill this in! ==Programming== {{main|List of HBO original programming}} HBO's programming schedule currently consists largely of theatrically released feature films and adult-oriented original series (including, {{As of|November 2023|lc=y}}, dramas such as ''[[Euphoria (American TV series)|Euphoria]]'', ''[[Industry (TV series)|Industry]]'', ''[[The Gilded Age (TV series)|The Gilded Age]]'', ''[[House of the Dragon]]'', ''[[The Last of Us (TV series)|The Last of Us]]'', and ''[[True Detective]]''; comedies such as ''[[Curb Your Enthusiasm]]'' and ''[[The Righteous Gemstones]]''; and topical satires ''[[Last Week Tonight with John Oliver]]'' and ''[[Real Time with Bill Maher]]''). In addition, HBO also carries documentary films (mainly produced through its in-house production unit HBO Documentary Films), sports-focused documentary and magazine series (produced through its HBO Sports production unit), occasional original made-for-TV movies, occasional original concert and stand-up comedy specials, and short-form behind-the-scenes specials centered mainly on theatrical films (either running in their initial theatrical or HBO/Cinemax broadcast window). Newer episodes of most HBO original programs usually air over its main channel after 9:00 p.m. Eastern and Pacific Time; depending partly on the day's programming schedule, repeats of original series, made-for-cable movies, and documentaries (typically excluding programs with graphic violent or sexual content) are shown during the daytime hours on the main channel, and at various times on HBO's themed channels. Four of the themed multiplex channels—HBO Signature, HBO Family, HBO Comedy, and HBO Zone—also each carry archived HBO original series and specials dating to the 1990s. (Outside of HBO Family, which regularly airs archived family-oriented series and specials, airings of older original programs may vary based on the channel's daily schedule.)<ref>{{cite web |date=July 29, 1991 |title=Cable show producers shoot tamer versions. (Home Box Office, Inc., among other cable companies, sanitizes original versions of films produced for commercial television consumption) |url=http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-11113228.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110511211736/http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-11113228.html |archive-date=May 11, 2011 |periodical=Multichannel News}}</ref> Beginning with its programming expansion to afternoons in 1974, the primary HBO channel had imposed a longstanding [[watershed (broadcasting)|watershed policy]] prohibiting films assigned an [[Motion Picture Association of America film rating system|"R" rating]] from being broadcast before 8:00 p.m. ET/PT. (At various points, HBO also prohibited showings of X-/NC-17-rated and foreign [[art film]]s.)<ref>{{cite news|title=The Insider; HBO's bleeping little secret; bleeped profanity in an airing of the retrospective "Six Feet Under: 2001–2005: In Memoriam|url=http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-135518278.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110511211733/http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-135518278.html|url-status=dead|archive-date=May 11, 2011|author=Michele Greppi|publisher=[[TelevisionWeek]]|date=August 22, 2005|access-date=February 25, 2011}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=It's Not TV: HBO, The Company That Changed Television: The Wall|url=http://www.soundonsight.org/its-not-tv-hbo-the-company-that-changed-television-the-wall/|author=Bill Mesce|publisher=Sound on Sight|date=September 16, 2013|access-date=February 1, 2014|archive-date=February 2, 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140202221502/http://www.soundonsight.org/its-not-tv-hbo-the-company-that-changed-television-the-wall/|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref>{{cite magazine |title=HBO: off the ground, but flying low |periodical=Broadcasting |page=47 |date=February 4, 1974}}</ref> The policy—which extended to films shown between 6:00 a.m. and 8:00 p.m. ET/PT, when HBO began offering 24-hour programming on weekends in September 1981—may have once stemmed from HBO's pre-mid-2000s availability on analog cable tiers (whereas its multiplex channels generally require a [[digital cable]] subscription or at least scrambling), and, because of controversy surrounding daytime showings of R-rated films that began being scheduled on competing premium services as early as 1980, remained in place well after the [[V-chip]] became standard in newer television sets.<ref name="b&c-hbo24hr">{{cite magazine |date=June 8, 1981 |title=HBO goes 24 hours |page=70 |periodical=Broadcasting}}<br />{{cite magazine |date=June 8, 1981 |title=HBO goes 24 hours |page=74 |periodical=Broadcasting}}</ref> From April 1979 to March 1987, rating bumpers preceding HBO telecasts of R-rated films included a special disclaimer indicating to viewers that the movie would air exclusively during the designated watershed period (“Home Box Office/HBO will show this feature only at night"). The watershed policy was extended to cover TV-MA-rated programs when the [[TV Parental Guidelines]] were implemented industry-wide on January 1, 1997, although HBO had already been withholding airing original programs incorporating mature content that would now qualify for a TV-MA rating outside the watershed period.<ref>{{cite web|title=HBO Schedule: Primary HBO channel|url=http://www.hbo.com/apps/schedule/ScheduleServlet?ACTION_TODAY=TODAY|publisher=HBO|access-date=October 5, 2012|archive-date=June 27, 2008|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080627023829/http://www.hbo.com/apps/schedule/ScheduleServlet?ACTION_TODAY=TODAY|url-status=dead}}</ref> {{As of|2021}}, HBO employs fairly fluid enforcement of the watershed policy, varying based on the content scheduled to air on its main channel during each programming day. The policy began to be weakened in January 2010, when the main HBO channel started allowing original series, movies, and documentaries given a TV-MA rating for strong profanity or non-graphic violence to air during the daytime on Saturdays and Sundays; in January 2012, HBO began offering occasional Sunday daytime airings of R-rated films within its weekly encore showing of the Saturday movie premiere (airing as early as 4:00 p.m. ET/PT, depending on the previous night's scheduled premiere film, that film's length, and the Sunday night block of HBO original series that usually follows the rebroadcast); by 2017, afternoon R-rated movie airings (which occasionally have been shown as early as 2:00 p.m. ET/PT since then) were permitted in random afternoon timeslots any day of the week on the main channel at the network's discretion. Most of the six HBO thematic multiplex channels—except for HBO Family, which prohibits programming containing either equivalent rating by the effect of the channel's target audience and format<ref>{{cite web|title=HBO Family schedule website|url=http://www.hbo.com/apps/schedule/ScheduleServlet?ACTION_TODAY=TODAY|publisher=Home Box Office, Inc.|access-date=October 5, 2012|archive-date=June 27, 2008|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080627023829/http://www.hbo.com/apps/schedule/ScheduleServlet?ACTION_TODAY=TODAY|url-status=dead}}</ref>—air TV-MA and R-rated programming during morning and afternoon periods. HBO also does not typically allow most NC-17-rated films to be aired on the primary channel or its multiplex channels. {{Citation needed|date=January 2018}} HBO pioneered the [[free preview]] concept—now a standard promotional tool in the pay television industry—in 1973, as a marketing strategy allowing participating television providers to offer a sampling of HBO's programming for potential subscribers of the service.<ref>{{cite book|title=It's Not TV: Watching HBO in the Post-Television Era|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=z2SUAgAAQBAJ&q=HBO+free+preview+Lawrence,+Massachusetts&pg=PA3|author=Marc Leverette|author2=Brian L. Ott|author3=Cara Louise Buckley|publisher=[[Routledge]]|page=3|isbn=9781135902742|date=March 23, 2009|access-date=April 20, 2015}}</ref> Cable providers were permitted to offer the unscrambled HBO content—aired for a single evening or, beginning in 1981 at the network level (as early as 1978 on some providers), over a two-day weekend (later extended to three days in 1997, then to a Friday-to-Monday "four-day weekend" format by 2008)—over a local origination channel, though satellite and digital cable providers elected instead to unencrypt the channels corresponding to each HBO feed for the preview period.<ref>{{cite magazine |title=Cable Briefs: HBO for free. |periodical=Broadcasting |page=42 |date=August 1, 1977}}</ref> Until 2002, interstitials hosted by on-air presenters (notably including, among others, [[Norm Crosby]], [[Greg Kinnear]], [[Sinbad (comedian)|Sinbad]] and [[Ellen DeGeneres]]) promoting the service and its upcoming programs to prospective subscribers aired alongside on-air promotions between programs during the preview weekend, although interstitials produced in-house or by third-party producers were inserted by some providers over the HBO feed during promo breaks for their local or regional audience; from September 1988 to September 1994, the network also aired a 15-minute-long promotional "free preview show" each night of the preview event—usually following the headlining prime time film—that previewed upcoming HBO programming for prospective and existing subscribers. HBO offers between three and five preview events each year—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—to pay television providers for distribution on a voluntary participation basis.<ref>{{cite web|title=It's Not TV: HBO, The Company That Changed Television: Title Fights: The King of Pay-TV|url=http://www.soundonsight.org/its-not-tv-hbo-the-company-that-changed-television-expanding-the-brand-part-2/|author=Bill Mesce|publisher=Sound on Sight|date=August 29, 2013|access-date=April 15, 2014|archive-date=February 3, 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140203002350/http://www.soundonsight.org/its-not-tv-hbo-the-company-that-changed-television-expanding-the-brand-part-2/|url-status=dead}}</ref> (The total of participating providers that elected to offer a free preview event varies depending on the given preview period, and participating multiple-system cable operators may elect to carry the event only in certain regions where they provide service.) HBO also produces short segments promoting newer movies with the cooperation of the film studios that hold distribution rights to the projects (almost universally by studios maintaining exclusive pay television contracts with HBO and Cinemax, and which have been rebroadcast on the former during a film's pay-cable distribution window), and have usually consisted of either interstitial "behind-the-scenes" and interview segments on an upcoming/recent theatrical release or [[red carpet]] coverage. Currently, these segments air under the ''HBO First Look'' series of 15-to-20-minute-long documentary-style interstitial specials, which debuted in 1992 and has no set airing schedule. (Since 2010, the "making of" specials, for which HBO officially no longer uses the ''First Look'' name, are only identified under the banner for [[TV listings|program listing]] identification.) The network previously produced three-to-five-minute-long feature segments that aired during longer-duration between-program promotional breaks, ''HBO News'' (1988–2011; formerly titled ''HBO Entertainment News'' from 1988 to 2007) and ''HBO Behind the Scenes'' (1982–1992). The interstitials—particularly those aired as episodes of ''First Look''—have also frequently been included as bonus features on DVD and [[Blu-ray Disc|Blu-ray]] releases of the profiled films. Since 2011, HBO no longer airs "behind-the-scenes" interstitials during promotional breaks, and has reduced airings of ''First Look'' to a few episodes per year as the network has honed its focus on higher-profile original programs and studios have increasingly limited their self-produced "making of" featurettes for exclusive physical and digital media release. {{Citation needed|date=January 2018}} During the network's early years, HBO aired other interstitials in-between programs. Originally billed as ''Something Short and Special'', around 1980, ''InterMissions'' (as the interstitials were begun to be called in September 1978) was bannered into two groupings: ''[[Video Jukebox (TV series)|Video Jukebox]]'', a showcase of music videos from various artists (eventually separated from the other intermission shorts and given various long-form spinoffs, also titled as ''Video Jukebox'' or variants thereof), and ''Special'', showcasing short films. By 1984, the short segments had mainly been limited to comedic film shorts (originally branded as ''HBO Comedy Shorts'' and then as ''HBO Short Takes'', which used a set of differing animated intros) and youth-targeted live action and animated short films seen largely before and during family-oriented programming (branded as ''HBO Shorts for Kids''). Intermission shorts had largely vanished from the channel by 1988. Since 2014, HBO has occasionally aired short films ranging between 15 and 25 minutes in length at varying times each week during the overnight/early morning hours on its primary and select multiplex channels, in addition to being available on demand via HBO's various streaming and television VOD platforms (including its dedicated portal on HBO Max). ===Original programming=== HBO innovated [[original programming|original entertainment programming]] for cable television networks, in which a television series (both dramatic and comedic), made-for-television movie, or entertainment special is developed for and production is primarily, if not exclusively, handled by the channel of its originating broadcast. Since 1973, the network has produced a variety of original programs alongside its slate of theatrical motion pictures. Most of these programs cater to adult viewers (and, with limited exceptions, are typically assigned [[TV Parental Guidelines#TV-MA|TV-MA ratings]]), often featuring—with such content varying by program—high amounts of profanity, violence, sexual themes or nudity that [[basic cable]] or over-the-air broadcast channels would be reticent to air because of objections from sponsors and the risk of them pulling or refusing to sell their advertising depending on the objectionable material that a sponsor is comfortable placing their advertising. (Incidentally, since the early 2000s, some ad-supported basic cable channels—like [[FX (TV network)|FX]] and [[Comedy Central]]—have incorporated stronger profanity, somewhat more pervasive violence and sexual themes, and occasional nudity in their original programs, similar to the content featured in original programs shown on HBO and other premium services, with relatively limited advertiser issues.) Mainly because it is not beholden to the preferences of advertisers, HBO has long been regarded in the entertainment industry for letting program creators maintain full [[artistic freedom|creative autonomy]] over their projects, allowing them to depict gritty subject matter that—before basic cable channels and streaming services deciding to follow the model set by HBO and other pay cable services—had not usually been shown on other television platforms. 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), then-HBO CEO Richard Plepler said that he does not want the network to be akin to [[Netflix]] in which users "[[binge watching|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." Pleper cited that he felt that binge-watching does not correlate with the culture of HBO and HBO watchers.<ref>{{cite web|title=Here's Why HBO's CEO Doesn't Want You To Binge-Watch Shows|url=https://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/04/28/hbo-slams-binge-watching_n_7160496.html|author=Chris Morran|work=HuffPost|date=April 28, 2015}}</ref> Some of its original programs, however, have been aimed at families or children, primarily those produced before 2001 (through its original programming division and third-party producers both American and foreign) and from 2016 to 2020 (under its agreement with Sesame Workshop); children's programs that have aired on HBO have included ''Sesame Street'', ''[[Fraggle Rock]]'', ''[[Happily Ever After: Fairy Tales for Every Child]]'', ''[[A Little Curious]]'', ''[[Crashbox]]'', ''[[Babar (TV series)|Babar]]'', ''[[HBO Storybook Musicals]]'', ''[[Lifestories: Families in Crisis]]'', ''[[Dear America]]'' and ''[[The Little Lulu Show]]'' as well as acquisitions including ''[[The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (1986 TV series)|The Wonderful Wizard of Oz]]'', ''[[The Legend of White Fang]]'', ''[[Shakespeare: The Animated Tales]]'', ''[[Animated Hero Classics]]'' and ''[[The Country Mouse and the City Mouse Adventures]]''. Beginning in 2001, most of the family- or kid-oriented programs had migrated to HBO Family, with only a limited amount of newer family-oriented series being produced for either the primary channel or HBO Family since. (HBO Family continued to maintain a limited slate of original children's programming until 2003.) HBO ventured back into children's programming with its acquisition of first-run broadcast and streaming rights to ''[[Sesame Street]]'', a long-running children's television series that had previously aired on the program's longtime broadcaster, [[PBS]] (and its morning block), for the vast majority of its run, in a five-year programming and development deal with [[Sesame Workshop]] that was announced in August 2015. Although struck with the intent to have the show remain on PBS in some fashion, the nonprofit [[production company]] reached the deal due to cutbacks resulting from declines in public and private donations, distribution fees paid by PBS member stations, and licensing for merchandise sales. Through the agreement, HBO obtained first-run television rights to ''Sesame Street'', beginning with the January 2016 debut of its 46th season (with episodes being distributed to PBS, following a nine-month exclusivity window at no charge to its member stations); Sesame Workshop also produced original children's programming content for the channel, which also gained exclusive streaming rights to the company's programming library for HBO Go and HBO Now (assuming those rights from [[Amazon Prime Video|Amazon Video]], [[Netflix]] and Sesame Workshop's in-house subscription streaming service, Sesame Go, the latter of which will cease to operate as a standalone offering).<ref name="cnnmoney-sesamestreet">{{cite web|title='Sesame Street' is heading to HBO|url=https://money.cnn.com/2015/08/13/media/sesame-street-hbo/index.html|author=Frank Pallotta|author2=Brian Stelter|publisher=[[CNN]]|date=August 13, 2015|access-date=August 13, 2015|author2-link=Brian Stelter}}</ref><ref name="sw-hbomax">{{cite press release|title=HBO Max and Sesame Workshop Announce New Content Partnership Cementing a Shared Commitment to Kids and Families|url=https://www.sesameworkshop.org/press-room/press-releases/hbo-max-and-sesame-workshop-announce-new-content-partnership-cementing|website=[[Sesame Workshop]]|date=October 3, 2019|access-date=May 10, 2020}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|title=Sesame Street is killing off its subscription streaming service, Sesame Go|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-switch/wp/2015/08/14/sesame-street-is-killing-off-its-subscription-streaming-service-sesame-go/|author=Brian Fung|newspaper=[[The Washington Post]]|date=August 14, 2015|access-date=August 15, 2015}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|title='Sesame Street' to Air First on HBO for Next 5 Seasons|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/14/business/media/sesame-street-heading-to-hbo-in-fall.html|author=Emily Steel|newspaper=The New York Times|date=August 13, 2015|access-date=August 13, 2015|language=en-US|issn=0362-4331}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|title=HBO Picks Up 'Sesame Street' As Kids' Viewing Habits Change|url=https://variety.com/2015/tv/news/hbo-picks-up-sesame-street-in-five-year-pact-with-sesame-workshop-1201569335/|author=Brian Steinberg|newspaper=[[Variety (magazine)|Variety]]|date=August 13, 2015|access-date=August 14, 2015}}</ref> With the debut of HBO Max in May 2020, under contract renewal terms agreed upon between the studio and WarnerMedia in October 2019, ''Sesame Street'' and other Sesame Workshop content will shift from the linear television service to the streaming-based HBO Max later in the year.<ref name="sw-hbomax"/> ===Movie library=== {{See also|List of HBO Films films}} On average, movies occupy between 14 and 18 hours of the daily schedule on HBO and HBO2 (or as little as 12 hours on the latter, depending upon if HBO2 is scheduled to carry an extended "catch-up" marathon of an HBO original series), and up to 20 hours per day—depending on channel format—on its five thematic multiplex channels. Since June 6, 1992, HBO has offered weekly pay television premieres of recent theatrical and original made-for-cable movies on Saturdays at 8:00 p.m. ET/PT. (Event presentations that have followed the movie—such as boxing coverage or concerts—have caused rare variances in the preceding film's start time; if a live event was scheduled, before the December 2018 discontinuation of HBO's boxing telecasts, the premiered film would air after the event—in reverse order from the Eastern feed scheduling—on the Pacific Time Zone feed.) From June 1996 until September 2006, the presentations were marketed as the "Saturday Night Guarantee" to denote a promise of "a new movie [premiering] every Saturday night" all 52 weeks of the year. (HBO had highlighted said "guarantee" in promotions for the Saturday premiere night dating to January 1994.) Before settling on having Saturday serve as its anchor premiere night, the scheduling of HBO's prime-time film premieres varied between Saturday, Sunday, and Wednesday, depending on competition from broadcast fare during the traditional network television season. First-run theatrical films debut on average from ten months to one year after a film's initial theatrical run has concluded, and no more than six months after their DVD or digital VOD download release.<ref>{{cite web|title=Cable Mavericks Collection: David Baldwin|url=https://www.cablecenter.org/media-room/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=157|website=The Cable Center|date=December 6, 2007|access-date=July 17, 2020}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=Hooray for Hollywood|url=https://variety.com/2003/scene/markets-festivals/hooray-for-hollywood-2-1117891251/|author=Jack Egan|website=Variety|date=August 24, 2003|access-date=July 17, 2020}}</ref><ref>{{cite magazine |title=HBO trumpets Saturday night at the movies |author=Rich Brown |periodical=Broadcasting & Cable |page=24 |date=August 8, 1994}}</ref> [[COVID-19 pandemic|COVID-19]]-related [[Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on cinema|postponements of newer theatrical releases]] by its distribution partners caused HBO to reduce the frequency of scheduled theatrical premieres in September 2020; since then, the Saturday 8:00 slot has been occupied by premieres of original specials and documentaries (scheduled at least once per month) and, since late December 2020, airings of older hit movies (mainly films released between 1979 and 2015) distributed under library content deals during gap weeks in the monthly premiere schedule. As of 2024, HBO and sister channel Cinemax (as well as their associated streaming platforms) maintain exclusive licensing agreements to first-run and library film content from the following studios and their related subsidiaries: * [[Warner Bros. Pictures|Warner Bros. Pictures Group]] (since January 1987);<ref name="times-hbowarnerdeal">{{cite news|title=HBO Signs Deal for Exclusive Pay-TV Rights to Warner Movies|url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1986-06-05-fi-9512-story.html|author=Kathryn Harris|newspaper=Los Angeles Times|date=June 5, 1986|access-date=July 7, 2020}}</ref> ** '''Subsidiaries:''' [[New Line Cinema]] (since January 2005),<ref name="very-hbounideal">{{cite news|title=HBO eclipses Starz in 8-year U pact|url=https://variety.com/2001/tv/news/hbo-eclipses-starz-in-8-year-u-pact-1117793026/|author=John Dempsey|periodical=Variety|date=January 30, 2001}}</ref> [[Warner Bros. Pictures Animation]] (since January 2014), [[DC Studios]] (since May 2017), and [[Castle Rock Entertainment]] (since January 2003); ** '''Library content:''' [[Warner Independent Pictures]] (2003–2008 releases) * [[A24]] (since January 2024);<ref name="vty-hboa24deal">{{cite web|title=A24 Movies to Stream Exclusively on HBO and Max Under New Deal, Including ‘Priscilla’ and ‘Iron Claw’|url=https://variety.com/2023/tv/news/a24-hbo-max-stream-exclusively-output-deal-priscilla-iron-claw-1235824282/|author=Todd Spangler|magazine=Variety|publisher=Penske Media Corporation|date=December 6, 2023|access-date=April 14, 2024}}</ref> ** '''Library content:''' (for post-2012 releases, since August 2022)<ref name="wrap-hboa24deal">{{cite web|title=HBO Max to Add Big Collection of A24 Films Including ‘Ex Machina’ and ‘Room’ in August|url=https://www.thewrap.com/hbo-max-a24-films-room-ex-machina-locke-august-1/|author=Sharon Knolle|website=The Wrap|date=July 19, 2022|access-date=April 14, 2024}}</ref> HBO also maintains sub-run agreements—covering television and streaming licensing of films that have previously received broadcast or syndicated television airings—for theatrical films distributed by [[Paramount Pictures]] (including content from subsidiaries or acquired library partners [[Miramax]], [[Carolco Pictures]], [[Nickelodeon Movies]] and [[Republic Pictures]], all for films released prior to 2013), [[Universal Pictures]] (including content from subsidiaries [[Universal Animation Studios]], [[DreamWorks Animation]], [[Working Title Films]], [[Illumination (company)|Illumination]], and [[Focus Features]], all for films released prior to 2022), [[Summit Entertainment]] (for films released prior to 2023), [[Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures]] (including content from [[Walt Disney Pictures]], [[20th Century Studios]], and [[Searchlight Pictures]] (except films co-produced by [[Pixar]]), and former subsidiaries [[Touchstone Pictures]], and [[Hollywood Pictures]], all for films released prior to 2023), [[Sony Pictures|Sony Pictures Entertainment]] (including content from subsidiaries/library partners [[Columbia Pictures]], [[Sony Pictures Classics]], [[Embassy Pictures|ELP Communications]], [[Morgan Creek Entertainment]], [[Screen Gems]], [[Revolution Studios]], and former HBO sister company [[TriStar Pictures]]), and [[Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer]] (including content from subsidiaries [[Orion Pictures]], and former subsidiaries [[United Artists]], [[The Cannon Group, Inc.|The Cannon Group]], and [[The Samuel Goldwyn Company]]). HBO also produces made-for-cable television movies through a sister production unit [[HBO Films]], which traces its origins to the 1983 founding of HBO Premiere Films. Originally developed to produce original television movies and miniseries with higher budgets and production values than other telefilms, the film unit's first original movie project was the 1983 biopic ''[[The Terry Fox Story]]''. Differing from other direct-to-cable television films, most of HBO's original movies have been helmed by major film actors (such as [[James Stewart]], [[Michael Douglas]], [[Drew Barrymore]], [[Stanley Tucci]], [[Halle Berry]] and [[Elizabeth Taylor]]). The unit—which would be rechristened HBO Pictures in 1985—expanded beyond its telefilm slate, which was scaled back to focus on independent film production in 1984.<ref>{{cite magazine |title=Cablecastings: Pleased with 'Fox' |periodical=Broadcasting |page=9 |date=August 22, 1983}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|title=HBO SETS A TREND IN CABLE MOVIES|url=https://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/fl-xpm-1985-07-28-8501310963-story.html|author=Bill Kelley|newspaper=[[South Florida Sun-Sentinel|Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel]]|date=July 28, 1985|access-date=May 18, 2020}}</ref> The current HBO Films unit was formed in October 1999 through the consolidation of HBO Pictures and [[HBO NYC Productions]] (created as HBO Showcase in 1986, and following its June 1996 restructuring, had also occasionally produced drama series for the network).<ref>{{cite news|title=TV VIEW; HBO'S NEW 'SHOWCASE' DISPLAYS PROMISE|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1986/07/20/arts/tv-view-hbo-s-new-showcase-displays-promise.html|author=John J. O'Connor|newspaper=The New York Times|date=July 20, 1986|access-date=May 18, 2020}}</ref><ref>{{cite magazine |title=Cablecastings: Coming next year |periodical=Broadcasting |page=10 |date=October 21, 1985}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|title=HBO Films taps exex|url=https://variety.com/1999/biz/news/hbo-films-taps-exex-1117758117/|author=Chris Pursell|periodical=Variety|date=November 17, 1999|access-date=May 18, 2020}}</ref><ref>{{cite magazine |title=HBO boosts made-for slate |author=Jim McConville |periodical=Broadcasting & Cable |page=47 |date=June 10, 1996}}</ref> Since 1984, HBO Films has also maintained an exclusive licensing agreement with HBO (later expanded to include Cinemax) for theatrical productions produced by the unit and, since HBO became co-owned with the film division through the 1989 Time-Warner merger, distributed through Warner Bros. Entertainment. Films to which HBO maintains traditional telecast and streaming rights will usually also be shown on the Cinemax television and streaming platforms during their licensing agreement period (either after a film title completes its HBO window or transfers between services over certain months during the contractual period). Feature films from the aforementioned studios that maintain joint licensing contracts encompassing both services will typically make their premium television debut on HBO approximately two to three months before their premiere on Cinemax and vice versa. ====Background==== HBO's relationship with Warner Bros. began with a five-year distribution agreement signed in June 1986, encompassing films released between January 1987 and December 1992; the estimated cost of the initial pay-cable rights was between $300 million and $600 million, depending on the overall performance of Warner's films and HBO/Cinemax's respective subscriber counts. Although the Warner deal was initially non-exclusive, a preemptive strategy if its co-owned rivals [[Showtime (TV network)|Showtime]] and The Movie Channel (which elected not to pick up any spare Warner titles) sought full exclusivity over movie rights, the terms gave Warner an option to require HBO to acquire exclusive rights to titles covered under the remainder of the deal for $60 million per year (in addition to a guaranteed $65 million fee for each year of the contract).<ref name="times-hbowarnerdeal" /><ref>{{cite magazine |title=HBO signs pact with Warner. |periodical=Broadcasting |page=160 |date=June 9, 1986}}</ref> As a result of the 1989 Time-Warner merger, HBO and Cinemax hold pay-cable exclusivity over all newer Warner Bros. films for the duration of their joint ownership. HBO and HBO Max initially reached a pay television and streaming rights deal with A24 (which had partnered with HBO to produce selected original series and specials since 2017, beginning with the comedy special ''[[Jerrod Carmichael]]: 8'') on July 18, 2022, which gave them library rights to the independent studio's 2013–2021 releases.<ref name="wrap-hboa24deal"/> On December 6, 2023, as part of a broader agreement that extended the studio's library content deal with both Warner Bros. Discovery-owned platforms, A24 announced it had entered into a multi-year output deal to distribute its films on HBO and Max following their theatrical release; the deal succeeded a pay-one exclusivity agreement that A24 had maintained with Showtime since 2019, which concluded at the end of 2023.<ref name="vty-hboa24deal"/><ref>{{cite web|title=New A24 Movies to Stream Exclusively on Max in New Output Deal|url=https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-news/hbo-max-a24-deal-1235712928/|author=Mia Galuppo|author2=Carolyn Giardina|magazine=The Hollywood Reporter|date=December 6, 2023|access-date=April 14, 2024}}</ref> ====Former first-run contracts==== Being the first pay-cable service to go national, for many years, HBO was advantageous in acquiring film licensing rights from major and independent studios; until Showtime, The Movie Channel, and other premium channels started beefing up their movie product to compete with HBO in the early 1980s, HBO's dominance in the pay-cable led to complaints from many motion picture companies of the network holding monopoly power in the pay cable industry and a disproportionate advantage in film acquisition negotiations.<ref>{{cite magazine |title=Movie makers complain of HBO 'monopoly' |periodical=Broadcasting |page=51 |date=December 5, 1977}}</ref> During the early years of premium cable, the major American movie studios often sold the pay television rights to an individual theatrical film title to multiple "maxi-pay" and "mini-pay" services—often including HBO and later, Cinemax—resulting in frequent same-month scheduling duplication amongst the competing services. From its launch as a regional service, HBO purchased broadcast rights to theatrical movies on a per-title basis. The network pioneered the pay television industry practice, known as a "pre-buy", of buying the pay-cable rights to a movie from its releasing studio before it started filming, in exchange for agreeing to pay a specified share of a film's production costs; this allowed HBO to maintain exclusivity over film output arrangements and to save money allocated for film acquisitions.<ref>{{cite news|title=HOME BOX OFFICE MOVES INTO HOLLYWOOD|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1983/06/12/magazine/home-box-office-moves-into-hollywood.html|newspaper=The New York Times|date=June 12, 1983|access-date=July 7, 2020}}</ref> In June 1976, it signed a four-year exclusive deal with [[Columbia Pictures]] for a package of 20 films released between January 1977 and January 1981, in exchange for then-parent company Time, Inc. committing a $5-million production financing investment with Columbia over between 12 and 18 months.<ref name="b&c-hbodeals76">{{cite magazine |title=HBO makes deals for movies, cable system |periodical=Broadcasting |page=55 |date=June 28, 1976}}<br />{{cite magazine |title=HBO makes deals for movies, cable system |periodical=Broadcasting |page=56 |date=June 28, 1976}}</ref><ref name="Movie Duels">{{cite web|title=It's Not TV: HBO, The Company That Changed Television: The Movie Duels|url=http://www.soundonsight.org/its-not-tv-hbo-the-company-that-changed-television-the-movie-duels/|author=Bill Mesce|publisher=Sound on Sight|date=September 2, 2013|access-date=February 1, 2014|archive-date=February 2, 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140202101645/http://www.soundonsight.org/its-not-tv-hbo-the-company-that-changed-television-the-movie-duels/|url-status=dead}}</ref> Although HBO executives were reluctant at first to strike such arrangements, by the mid-1980s, the channel had transitioned to exclusive film output deals (now the standard among North American premium channels), in which a film studio licenses all or a proportion of their upcoming productions to a partner service over a multi-year contract. In 1983, HBO entered into three exclusive licensing agreements tied to production financing arrangements involving Tri-Star Pictures (formed as a co-production venture between Time, Inc./HBO, Columbia, and CBS Inc.), Columbia Pictures (an exclusivity-based contract extension initially covering 50% of the studio's pre-June 1986 releases with a non-compete option to purchase additional Columbia titles) and [[Orion Pictures]] (encompassing a package of 30 films, in return for financial participation and a $10-million securities investment; the deal was indirectly associated with Orion's buyout of [[Filmways]] the year prior, in which HBO bought pay television rights to the studio's films). All three deals were approved under a [[United States Department of Justice|U.S. Department of Justice]] review greenlighting the Tri-Star venture in June of that year. (The Tri-Star deal became non-exclusive in January 1988, although Showtime elected not to acquire titles from HBO's film rights lessees.)<ref>{{cite magazine |title=Tri-Star gets go-ahead from Justice |periodical=Broadcasting |page=35 |date=June 28, 1983}}</ref><ref>{{cite magazine |title=CBS, Time Inc. (HBO) and Coca-Cola (Columbia) join forces to prime pump in movie production |periodical=Broadcasting |page=35 |date=December 6, 1982}}<br />{{cite magazine |title=CBS, Time Inc. (HBO) and Coca -Cola (Columbia) join forces to prime pump in movie production |periodical=Broadcasting |page=36 |date=December 6, 1982}}</ref><ref>{{cite magazine |title=HBO and Orion group buy into Filmways |periodical=Broadcasting |page=76 |date=February 15, 1982}}<br />{{cite magazine |title=HBO and Orion group buy into Filmways |periodical=Broadcasting |page=77 |date=February 15, 1982}}</ref> After the exclusive contract transferred to Showtime in January 1994, in July 1995, HBO preemptively signed a five-year deal with the studio that took effect in January 2000, in conjunction with a five-year extension of its existing deal with Columbia Pictures. (Columbia and TriStar's respective output deals with HBO ended on December 31, 2004, when [[Sony Pictures]] transferred exclusive pay-cable rights for their films to Starz—which {{As of|2020|May|lc=y}}, holds rights to televise all recent releases from either studio through December 2021, after which in January 2022, under a five-year agreement signed in April 2021, Netflix will assume pay television rights to its newer Sony films—after HBO declined a request by Columbia during contract negotiations to allow the studio to experimentally distribute its theatrical films via streaming video during its contract window.)<ref>{{cite news|title=H.B.O. Signs Studios' Deal|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1995/06/29/business/hbo-signs-studios-deal.html|newspaper=The New York Times|date=June 29, 1995}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=TriStar titles go to Showtime|url=https://variety.com/1993/film/news/tristar-titles-go-to-showtime-108089/|author=John Dempsey|periodical=Variety|date=June 23, 1993|access-date=July 7, 2020}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=HBO grabs TriStar rights|url=https://variety.com/1995/tv/features/hbo-grabs-tristar-rights-99129219/|author=John Dempsey|periodical=Variety|date=July 10, 1995|access-date=July 7, 2020}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|title=Starz renews deal to get Sony movies through 2021; deal seen as must-win for channel|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/starz-renews-deal-to-get-sony-movies-through-2021-deal-seen-as-must-win-for-channel/2013/02/11/fe7ae5d4-7473-11e2-9889-60bfcbb02149_story.html|newspaper=[[The Washington Post]]|date=February 11, 2013|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150524182248/http://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/starz-renews-deal-to-get-sony-movies-through-2021-deal-seen-as-must-win-for-channel/2013/02/11/fe7ae5d4-7473-11e2-9889-60bfcbb02149_story.html|archive-date=May 24, 2015}}</ref><ref name="vty-hbounihomerun"/><ref>{{cite web|title=Sony Pictures Moves Movie Output Deal From Starz to Netflix in Rich Pact|url=https://variety.com/2021/film/news/netflix-sony-pictures-pay-1-starz-output-1234946413/|author1=Matt Donnelly|author2=Cynthia Littleton|periodical=Variety|date=April 8, 2021|access-date=June 17, 2021}}</ref> In February 1983, HBO signed an agreement with [[Silver Screen Partners]] (a now-defunct joint venture between HBO, Silver Screen Management, [[Thorn EMI]] and [[The Cannon Group, Inc.|The Cannon Group]]), in which HBO had right of first refusal in the film selection and received 5% of all profits derived from non-pay-cable distribution of the studio's films; the Silver Screen agreement concluded upon the studio's cessation in 1998.<ref>{{cite magazine |title=In Brief. |periodical=Broadcasting |page=120 |date=February 28, 1983}}</ref> In early 1984, HBO abandoned the exclusivity practice, citing internal research that concluded that subscribers showed indifference to efforts by premium channels to secure rights to studios' full slate of recently released films from to distinguish their programming due to [[VHS]] availability preceding pay-cable distribution in the release window. This change came after the firing of then-HBO chairman [[Frank Biondi]], reportedly for having "overextended the network in pre-buy and exclusive movie deals" as subscribership of pay-cable services declined. Biondi's replacement, Michael J. Fuchs, structured some of the subsequent deals as non-exclusive to allow HBO to divert more funding toward co-producing made-for-cable movies, other original programming, and theatrical joint ventures (via Tri-Star and Silver Screen Partners).<ref>{{cite magazine |title=Cablecastings: All in the Family |periodical=Broadcasting |page=10 |date=November 14, 1983}}</ref><ref>{{cite magazine |title=Cablecastings: Face-lift |periodical=Broadcasting |page=10 |date=March 12, 1984}}</ref><ref name="nyt-festival"/> In July 1986, the network had signed a three-year output deal with [[New World Pictures]], whereas HBO would receive up to 75 New World films Showtime won't, which cost $50 million to sign a deal.<ref>{{Cite news|last=Daniels|first=Bill|date=1986-07-30|title=HBO Signs An Exclusive Deal For New World Theatricals; Paycabler Muffles Satisfaction|page=42|work=[[Variety (magazine)|Variety]]}}</ref> On August 8, 1986, HBO had inked a non-exclusive agreement with [[Lorimar-Telepictures]] to enable a package of various Lorimar-Telepictures theatrical films up to 1989, and Lorimar-Telepictures would be involved as a production partner on several made-for-HBO television movies, in exchange for worldwide distribution rights, excluding pay television, and the current plans for the agreement enables five to six films per year from Lorimar-Telepictures.<ref>{{Cite news|last=Daniels|first=Bill|date=1986-08-06|title=L-T, HBO Enter Into A Two-Way Cable Film Deal|page=58|work=[[Variety (magazine)|Variety]]}}</ref> In September 1986, the network signed a five-year agreement with MGM/UA Communications Co. for a package of up to 72 Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and [[United Artists]] films.<ref>{{cite magazine |title=Cablecastings: HBO-MGM deal |periodical=Broadcasting |page=10 |date=September 1, 1986}}</ref> Also that month, HBO signed a pay cable and home video agreement with film producer [[Stephen J. Friedman (producer)|Kings Road Entertainment]], which will serve eight films, with the home video rights being assigned to subsidiary [[Home Box Office, Inc.|HBO/Cannon Video]], and the first film under the eight-picture agreement between HBO and Kings Road would be ''Touch & Go'', and will cost $65-$70 million.<ref>{{Cite news|date=1986-09-24|title=HBO Buys Rights To Kings Road Pix|page=37|work=[[Variety (magazine)|Variety]]}}</ref> In November 1986, HBO signed an agreement with [[De Laurentiis Entertainment Group]] for films that ran between 1987 and 1990, along with a three-year home video rights contract for sister label HBO/Cannon Video.<ref>{{Cite news|date=1986-11-26|title=HBO/Cannon Nabs Rights To DEG Pix|page=39|work=[[Variety (magazine)|Variety]]}}</ref> In December 1986, HBO signed a pact with Soviet Union producer Poseidon Films, to cover Soviet-based films that covered a non-specific timespan, with the network controlling US and Canada rights.<ref>{{Cite news|date=1986-12-17|title=HBO Signs Film Pact With Soviet Union|pages=42, 80|work=[[Variety (magazine)|Variety]]}}</ref> In July 1987, HBO signed a five-year, $500-million deal for exclusive rights to 85 Paramount Pictures films to have been tentatively released between May 1988 and May 1993. (This solidified an existing alliance with Paramount dating to 1979, for the non-exclusive rights to the studio's films.) Though this contract would herald the end of its embargo on new film exclusivity deals, HBO's then-CEO Michael Fuchs cited Showtime–The Movie Channel parent [[Viacom (1952–2006)|Viacom]] (which, at the time, had debt in excess of $2.4 billion) for it having to obtain exclusivity for the Paramount package, which the studio approached HBO directly to bid.<ref>{{cite magazine |title=HBO signs $500-million film deal with Paramount |periodical=Broadcasting |page=21 |date=July 20, 1987}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|title=HBO Buying Rights To Paramount Films|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1987/07/15/business/hbo-buying-rights-to-paramount-films.html|author=Geraldine Fabrikant|newspaper=The New York Times|date=July 15, 1987}}</ref><ref>{{cite magazine |title=The HBO-Showtime struggle for Hollywood films |periodical=Broadcasting |page=38 |date=July 27, 1987}}<br />{{cite magazine |title=The HBO-Showtime struggle for Hollywood films |periodical=Broadcasting |page=39 |date=July 27, 1987}}</ref><ref>{{cite magazine |title=Monitor: Now In HBO's Inventory. |periodical=Broadcasting |page=69 |date=December 3, 1979}}</ref> The Paramount package remained with HBO/Cinemax until December 1997; Showtime assumed the pay-cable rights to the studio's films in January 1998, under a seven-year deal reached as a byproduct of Viacom's 1994 purchase of Paramount from Paramount Communications, and held them until December 2008. (Shared rival [[Epix (TV network)|Epix]]—created as a consortium between Paramount/[[Viacom (2005–2019)|Viacom]], Lionsgate, and now-sole owner MGM—took over pay television rights upon that network's October 2009 launch.)<ref>{{cite news|title=Showtime announces deal with Paramount|url=https://www.upi.com/Archives/1995/05/19/Showtime-announces-deal-with-Paramount/8824800856000/|work=United Press International|date=May 19, 1995|access-date=July 7, 2020}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=NATPE 2009: Studio 3's New Net Will Be Epix Premium channel to launch Q4 2009|url=http://www.broadcastingcable.com/news/syndication-and-distribution/natpe-2009-studio-3%E2%80%99s-new-net-will-be-epix/50779|author=Paige Albiniak|periodical=Broadcasting & Cable|date=January 27, 2009|access-date=March 23, 2015}}</ref> In March 1995, HBO signed a ten-year deal with the then-upstart [[DreamWorks Pictures|DreamWorks SKG]] valued at between $600 million and $1 billion, depending on the total output of films and generated revenue during the contract, covering the studio's tentative releases between January 1996 and December 2006.<ref>{{cite news|title=HBO Buys Rights to New Studio's Films|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1995/03/09/business/hbo-buys-rights-to-new-studio-s-films.html|author=Geraldine Fabrikant|newspaper=The New York Times|issn=0362-4331|date=March 9, 1995|access-date=March 19, 2019}}</ref><ref>{{cite magazine |title=HBO's 'Dream' deal: $600 million-$1 billion |author=Rich Brown |periodical=Broadcasting |page=10 |date=March 13, 1995}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|title=March Gladness For HBO: A Billion-Dollar Deal And Costner, Too|url=http://articles.philly.com/1995-03-14/entertainment/25701186_1_rating-dreamworks-abc|author=Lee Winfrey|agency=[[New York Daily News]] and Knight-Ridder News Service|newspaper=[[The Philadelphia Inquirer]]|date=March 14, 1995}}</ref> By result of the 2004 spin-off of its animation arm [[DreamWorks Animation]] into a standalone company, DreamWorks' pay-cable distribution rights were split up into separate contracts: in March 2010, Showtime acquired the rights to live-action films from the original DreamWorks studio (coinciding with the transfer of co-production agreement from Paramount Pictures to [[Touchstone Pictures]], then a Showtime distribution partner) for five years, effective January 2011.<ref>{{cite news|title=Showtime signs deal to air DreamWorks films|url=https://www.reuters.com/article/us-dreamworks-idUSTRE62B05H20100312|work=[[Reuters]]|date=March 12, 2010}}</ref> Then in September 2011, after HBO agreed to waive the last two years of its contract, Netflix acquired the DreamWorks Animation contract effective upon the December 2012 expiration of the HBO deal. (Before the 2015 launch of HBO Now, HBO required its studio output partners to suspend digital sales of their movies during their exclusive contractual window with the network; the Netflix deal was not subject to any distribution restrictions, allowing DreamWorks Animation to continue the re-sale of its films through digital download via third-party providers.)<ref>{{cite news|title=Netflix Secures Streaming Deal With DreamWorks|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/26/business/media/netflix-secures-streaming-deal-with-dreamworks.html|author=Brooks Barnes|author2=[[Brian Stelter]]|newspaper=The New York Times|date=September 26, 2011|access-date=September 27, 2011}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=Showtime Inks Deal With DreamWorks|url=https://www.multichannel.com/news/showtime-inks-deal-dreamworks-363405|author=R. Thomas Umstead|periodical=Multichannel News|date=March 15, 2010|access-date=July 7, 2020}}</ref> 20th Century Fox first signed a non-exclusive deal with HBO in January 1986, covering Fox films released between 1985 and 1988, along with a production co-financing agreement involving HBO original programs; the pact transitioned to an exclusivity arrangement with the 1988 renewal.<ref name="nyt-foxhbo">{{cite news|title=Fox-Time Venture|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1986/01/25/business/fox-time-venture.html|newspaper=The New York Times|date=January 25, 1986|access-date=July 7, 2020}}</ref><ref>{{cite magazine |title=Cablecastings: Change of heart |periodical=Broadcasting |page=10 |date=January 27, 1986}}</ref><ref name="b&c-hbofoxexclusive">{{cite magazine |title=HBO bags Fox films |periodical=Broadcasting |page=38 |date=May 16, 1988}}</ref> The first-run film output agreement with Fox was renewed by HBO for ten years on August 15, 2012 (with a provision allowing the studio to release its films through digital platforms such as [[iTunes]] and [[Amazon Prime Video|Amazon Video]] during the channel's term of license of an acquired film for the first time).<ref name="HBO Fox">{{cite news|title=HBO and 20th Century Fox renew output deal|url=https://www.latimes.com/entertainment/envelope/cotown/la-et-ct-hbo20th-20120815,0,5442974.story|author=Joe Flint|newspaper=Los Angeles Times|date=August 15, 2012}}</ref> While [[The Walt Disney Company]] completed its acquisition of 20th Century Fox in March 2019, Disney maintains an output deal with its in-house streaming services [[Disney+]] and [[Hulu]] for films produced or distributed by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures and its subsidiaries (which have not distributed their films over a traditional pay-cable service since the studio's agreement with HBO rival [[Starz (TV channel)|Starz]] ended in 2015). Disney continued to honor the output deal with HBO until November 2021, when WarnerMedia and Disney announced that the deal would be expanded to the end of 2022, with an amendment that would allow half of 20th Century Studios' 2022 slate to be shared between HBO or HBO Max and Disney+ or Hulu during the pay-one window beginning with ''[[Ron's Gone Wrong]]''.<ref name="20thHBO2022">{{cite web |last1=Spangler |first1=Todd |title=Disney, WarnerMedia Carve Up Fox Film Slate Streaming Rights Through End of 2022 (EXCLUSIVE) |url=https://variety.com/2021/digital/news/disney-warnermedia-fox-movies-streaming-2022-1235117329/ |website=Variety |date=22 November 2021}}</ref> HBO's relationship with Universal first began in March 1984, when it signed a six-year non-exclusivity deal with the studio; in April 1990, Universal elected to sign a deal with CBS for the licensing rights to a package of the studio's ten 1989 releases, bypassing the traditional pay-cable window.<ref name="b&c-hbouni84">{{cite magazine |title=HBO signs pact with Universal |periodical=Broadcasting |page=110 |date=March 19, 1984}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|title=THE MEDIA BUSINESS; CBS Is Said to Get 10 Films To Show Before Cable TV|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1990/04/09/business/the-media-business-cbs-is-said-to-get-10-films-to-show-before-cable-tv.html|author=Geraldine Fabrikant|newspaper=The New York Times|date=April 9, 1990|access-date=July 7, 2020}}</ref><ref>{{cite magazine |title=CBS takes Universal films passed on by cable |periodical=Broadcasting |page=57 |date=April 16, 1990}}</ref> The current Universal output deal—which began as an eight-year agreement that originally lasted through December 2010, assuming the studio's pay-cable rights from Starz—was renewed for ten years on January 6, 2013; the current deal gives HBO [[right of first refusal]] over select Universal titles, allowing the studio to exercise an option to license co-distributed live-action films to Showtime and animated films to Netflix if HBO elects not to obtain pay television rights to a particular film. (Universal put a 50% cap on title acquisitions for the first year of the initial 2003–10 contract, intending to split the rights between HBO and Starz as consolation for the latter outbidding HBO for the Sony Pictures output deal.)<ref name="vty-hbounihomerun">{{cite web|title=Inside Move: HBO Home Run|url=https://variety.com/2001/tv/news/inside-move-hbo-home-run-1117793244/|author=John Dempsey|periodical=Variety|date=February 6, 2001|access-date=July 7, 2020}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|title=HBO extends Universal deal, keeping films from Netflix|url=https://movies.yahoo.com/news/hbo-extends-universal-studio-deal-keeping-films-netflix-201204480--finance.html|website=[[Yahoo! Movies]]|publisher=[[Yahoo!]]|date=January 6, 2013|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130109032117/http://movies.yahoo.com/news/hbo-extends-universal-studio-deal-keeping-films-netflix-201204480--finance.html|archive-date=January 9, 2013}}</ref> On July 6, 2021, Universal Filmed Entertainment Group announced it would begin releasing its theatrical films on [[Peacock (streaming service)|Peacock]] after its exclusivity agreement with HBO concludes at the end of 2021, under a fragmented window (starting within 120 days of a film's theatrical release) through which Peacock will hold exclusive rights to Universal titles in bookending four-month windows at the beginning and end of the 18-month pay-one distribution period.<ref>{{cite web|title=Universal Moves Film Licensing Deal From HBO to Peacock, Bolstering Streaming Service|url=https://variety.com/2021/film/news/universal-moves-hbo-peacock-streaming-service-1235012751/|author=Brent Lang|periodical=Variety|date=July 6, 2021|access-date=July 7, 2021}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=Peacock Will Become Pay-One Partner For All Universal Pics After HBO Deal Expiration At Year's End|url=https://deadline.com/2021/07/peacock-will-become-pay-one-partner-for-all-universal-pics-after-hbo-deal-expiration-at-years-end-1234787069/|author=Anthony D'Alessandro|website=Deadline Hollywood|date=July 6, 2021|access-date=July 7, 2021}}</ref> Subsequently, [[Amazon (company)|Amazon]] (on July 8) and Starz (on July 16) signed separate multi-year sub-licensing agreements, in which Universal films would stream on Prime Video and [[IMDb TV]] in a 10-month non-exclusivity window during the middle of the period and air on Starz's linear and streaming platforms following the Peacock/Amazon windows; HBO will continue to release Universal's 2021 film slate under their existing contracts through 2022, while Netflix will continue to offer the studio's animated films thereafter.<ref>{{cite web|title=Amazon Prime Video & IMDb TV Ink Movie Licensing Deal With Universal|url=https://deadline.com/2021/07/amazon-prime-video-imdb-tv-universal-licensing-deal-1234788103/|author=Anthony D'Alessandro|author2=Nellie Andreeva|website=Deadline Hollywood|date=July 8, 2021}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=Starz Inks Post Pay-One Licensing Deal For Universal Movies|url=https://deadline.com/2021/07/starz-post-pay-one-licensing-deal-universal-jurassic-park-dominion-1234793988/|author=Nellie Andreeva|website=Deadline Hollywood|date=July 15, 2021|access-date=July 16, 2021}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=Netflix, Universal Extend and Expand Animated Film Licensing Deal (EXCLUSIVE)|url=https://variety.com/2021/film/news/netflix-universal-dreamworks-animation-minions-1235018397/|author=Brent Lang|periodical=Variety|date=July 13, 2021|access-date=July 16, 2021}}</ref> The first-run output deal with Summit Entertainment—which initially ran through December 2017, and replaced Showtime (which had exclusive rights to its films from January 2008 until December 2012) as the studio's pay-cable output partner when it initially went into effect in 2013—was renewed by HBO for an additional four years on March 1, 2016. (Summit is currently the only "mini-major" movie studio and the only studio not among the five core majors that maintains an exclusive output deal with HBO.)<ref name="HBO Chief">{{cite news|title=HBO Chief Talks HBO Now, International Expansion and Summit Output Extension|url=https://variety.com/2016/tv/news/hbo-chief-richard-plepler-summit-entertainment-1201720758/|author=Cynthia Littleton|periodical=Variety|date=March 2, 2016}}</ref> On March 2, 2021, it was announced that the deal with HBO through to the end of 2022 expires.<ref>{{cite web|title=Summit, HBO Sign Five-Year Output Deal|url=https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/summit-hbo-sign-five-year-192658|author=Gregg Kilday|periodical=The Hollywood Reporter|date=May 26, 2011|access-date=July 7, 2020}}</ref><ref>{{cite press release|title=HBO and Summit Entertainment Enter into Exclusive Output Agreement|url=http://thefutoncritic.com/news/2011/05/26/hbo-and-summit-entertainment-enter-into-exclusive-output-agreement-328415/20110526hbo04/|publisher=Home Box Office, Inc./Time Warner|via=The Futon Critic|date=May 26, 2011}}</ref><ref name="Vlessing">{{Cite web|url=https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-news/lionsgate-summit-label-films-headed-to-starz-for-exclusive-first-window-4141830|title=Lionsgate, Summit Label Films Headed to Starz for Exclusive First Window|last=Vlessing|first=Etan|date=March 2, 2021|website=The Hollywood Reporter|language=en|access-date=July 14, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200426164846/https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-news/lionsgate-summit-label-films-headed-to-starz-for-exclusive-first-window-4141830|archive-date=April 26, 2020|url-status=live}}</ref> Other film studios which formerly maintained first-run pay-cable contracts with HBO have included [[American Film Theatre]] (non-exclusive, 1975–1977),<ref>{{cite magazine |title=Kahn still puts his chips on cable |periodical=Broadcasting |page=52 |date=July 14, 1975}}</ref> [[Walt Disney Pictures|Walt Disney Productions]] (non-exclusive, 1978–1982),<ref>{{cite magazine |title=Disney fare to cable |periodical=Broadcasting |page=42 |date=July 17, 1978}}</ref><ref>{{cite magazine |title=Monitor: HBO says 'Hi, Mickey.' |periodical=Broadcasting |page=93 |date=December 22, 1980}}</ref> [[The Samuel Goldwyn Company]] (non-exclusive, 1979–1986),<ref>{{cite magazine |title=Hat in the ring. |periodical=Broadcasting |page=68 |date=October 29, 1979}}</ref> [[ITC Entertainment]] (non-exclusive, 1982–1990), New World Pictures (non-exclusive, 1982–1986), [[PolyGram Filmed Entertainment]] (non-exclusive, 1984–1989), [[Hemdale Film Corporation]] (non-exclusive, 1982–1986; exclusive, 1987–1991)<ref>{{cite magazine |title=Cablecastings: Exclusivity deals |periodical=Broadcasting |page=10 |date=September 29, 1986}}<br />{{cite magazine |title=Cablecastings: Exclusivity deals |periodical=Broadcasting |page=14 |date=September 29, 1986}}</ref> [[De Laurentiis Entertainment Group]] (non-exclusive, 1988–1991)<ref>{{cite magazine |title=Cablecastings: De Laurentiis deal |periodical=Broadcasting |page=14 |date=December 1, 1986}}</ref> [[Lorimar Television#Theatrical films|Lorimar Film Entertainment]] (non-exclusive, 1987–1990),<ref>{{cite news|title=Lorimar-Telepictures and HBO reached agreement.|url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1986-08-01-fi-19129-story.html|newspaper=Los Angeles Times|date=August 1, 1986|access-date=July 7, 2020}}</ref> [[Hemdale Film Corporation]] (non-exclusive, 1982–1986) and [[Savoy Pictures]] (exclusive, 1992–1997).<ref>{{cite news|title=Savoy Pictures and HBO Cut a Film Deal|url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1992-06-16-fi-654-story.html|author=John Lippman|newspaper=Los Angeles Times|date=June 16, 1992|access-date=July 7, 2020}}</ref> ===Specials=== Alongside feature-length movies and other types of original programming, HBO has produced original [[television special|entertainment specials]] throughout its existence. Five months after its launch, on March 23, 1973, the service aired its first non-sports entertainment special, the Pennsylvania Polka Festival, a three-hour-long music event broadcast from the [[Allentown Fairgrounds]] in Allentown, Pennsylvania.<ref>{{cite book|title=The Pennsylvania Polka Festival|url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/423286391|publisher=Home Box Office, Inc.|via=WorldCat|date=March 23, 1973|oclc=423286391}}</ref><ref>{{cite magazine |title=Cable: The First Forty Years – Mileposts on the Road to 40 |periodical=Broadcasting |page=47 |date=November 21, 1988}}</ref><ref name="An Original Voice">{{cite web |author=Bill Mesce |date=October 11, 2013 |title=It's Not TV: HBO, The Company That Changed Television: An Original Voice |url=http://www.soundonsight.org/its-not-tv-hbo-the-company-that-changed-television-an-original-voice/ |access-date=February 1, 2014 |website=Sound on Sight |archive-date=December 17, 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131217192226/http://www.soundonsight.org/its-not-tv-hbo-the-company-that-changed-television-an-original-voice/ |url-status=dead }}</ref> The network has cultivated a reputation for its [[stand-up comedy]] specials, which have helped raise the profile of established comedians (including [[George Carlin]], [[Alan King]], [[Rodney Dangerfield]], [[Billy Crystal]] and [[Robin Williams]]) and served as the launchpad for emerging comic stars (such as [[Dennis Miller]], [[Whoopi Goldberg]], [[Chris Rock]], [[Roseanne Barr]], [[Patton Oswalt]], [[Margaret Cho]] and [[Dave Chappelle]]), many of whom have gone on to television and film careers. HBO premieres between five and seven comedy specials per year on average, usually making their initial broadcast in late Saturday prime time, following its weekly movie premiere presentation. {{citation needed|date=January 2018}} Regular comedy specials on HBO began on December 31, 1975, with the premiere of ''An Evening with [[Robert Klein]]'', the first of nine HBO stand-up specials that the comic headlined over 35 years. Positive viewer response to the special led to the creation of ''[[On Location (TV series)|On Location]]'', a monthly anthology series that presented a stand-up comedian's nightclub performance in its entirety and uncut; it premiered on March 20, 1976, with a performance by [[David Steinberg]].<ref name="b&c-hbodeals76"/><ref>{{cite magazine |title=HBO begins to roll its entertainment for pay cable |periodical=Broadcasting |page=25 |date=March 8, 1976}}<br />{{cite magazine |title=HBO begins to roll its entertainment for pay cable |periodical=Broadcasting |page=26 |date=March 8, 1976}}</ref> HBO's stand-up comedy offerings would eventually expand with the ''HBO Comedy Hour'', which debuted on August 15, 1987, with ''[[Martin Mull]]: Live from [[North Ridgeville, Ohio|North Ridgeville]]'', a variety-comedy special headlined by Mull that featured a mix of on-stage and pre-filmed sketches.<ref>{{cite news|title=Mario Puzo's novel "The Fortunate Pilgrim" is..|url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1987-08-02-tv-469-story.html|author=Lee Margulies|newspaper=Los Angeles Times|date=August 2, 1987|access-date=July 22, 2020}}</ref> The ''Comedy Hour'' typically maintained a virtually identical concept as ''On Location'', taking that program's place as HBO's flagship stand-up series and ultimately resulting in ''On Location''{{'}}s phase-out after a 13-year run, ending with the premiere of ''Billy Crystal: Midnight Train to Moscow'' on October 21, 1989. A spin-off, the ''[[HBO Comedy Half-Hour]]'', airing from June 16, 1994 (with the inaugural special ''Chris Rock: Big Ass Jokes'') until January 23, 1998, maintained a short-form format in which the special's featured comedian presented their routine—usually recorded live at [[The Fillmore]] in San Francisco—only for 30 minutes. George Carlin headlined the most comedy specials for the network, making 12 appearances between 1977 and 2008; his first, ''[[George Carlin at USC|On Location: George Carlin at USC]]'' (aired on September 1, 1977), featured Carlin's first televised performance of his classic routine, "[[Seven dirty words|The Seven Words You Can Never Say on Television]]".<ref name="An Original Voice"/> As other cable channels incorporated comedy specials due to their inexpensive format, HBO began to model its strategy with its comedy specials after its music programming, focusing on a few specials each year featuring popular comedians. (HBO stopped billing its comedy specials under the ''Comedy Hour'' banner after the February 6, 1999, premiere of the Carlin-headlined ''You Are All Diseased''.)<ref name="An Original Voice"/> The network's library of comedy specials would become part of the initial programming inventories of two comedy-focused basic cable networks started by HBO through Time Inc./Time Warner, [[The Comedy Channel (United States)|The Comedy Channel]] (launched on November 15, 1989) and its successor, [[Comedy Central]] (launched on April 1, 1991, as a consolidation of The Comedy Channel and Viacom-owned [[Ha! (TV network)|Ha!]]). At irregular intervals between 1986 and 2010, HBO served as the primary broadcaster of ''[[Comic Relief USA]]''{{'s}} fundraising specials to help health and welfare assistance programs focused on [[Homelessness in the United States|America's homeless population]]. Developed by Comic Relief founder [[Bob Zmuda]] in conjunction with former HBO executive [[Chris Albrecht]], all eleven HBO editions of the fundraisers aired between the aforementioned years (out of the 15 produced by the charity over its 24-year existence) was hosted by Williams, Crystal, and Goldberg, featuring performances by stand-up comedians, [[improvisational comedy|improvisational comics]] and [[impressionist (entertainment)|impressionists]], and appearances by celebrities and politicians as well as documentary segments showing issues affecting the homeless. HBO and other sponsors handled all or most of the incurred costs of the Comic Relief events to ensure that money raised or contributed is distributed to the charity.<ref>{{cite book|title=Comic Relief: The Best of Comedy for the Best of Causes|author=Todd Gold|publisher=[[Avon Books]]|isbn=0-380-97391-X|year=1996}}</ref> Concert-based music specials are occasionally produced for the channel, featuring major recording artists performing in front of a live audience. One of HBO's first successful specials was ''[[The Bette Midler Show|The Fabulous Bette Midler Show]]'',{{refn|group="note"|name=TBMS|While ''The Bette Midler Show'' is the program's official title, the June 1976 edition of the ''HBO Guide'' also refers to the special as ''The Fabulous Bette Midler Show'', using both titles interchangeably.}} a stage special featuring [[Bette Midler|Midler]] performing music and comedy routines, which debuted on June 19, 1976. It served as the linchpin for the creation of ''[[Standing Room Only (TV series)|Standing Room Only]]'', a monthly series featuring concerts and various stage "spectaculars" (including among others, [[burlesque]] shows, [[Vaudeville]] routines, [[ventriloquism]] and magic performances) taped live in front of an audience; ''SRO'' premiered on April 17, 1977 (with ''[[Ann Corio]]'s 'This Was Burlesque''' as inaugural broadcast).<ref>{{cite magazine |title=Cable Briefs: Pay for play |periodical=Broadcasting |page=94 |date=March 28, 1977}}<br />{{cite magazine |title=Cable Briefs: Pay for play |periodical=Broadcasting |page=95 |date=March 28, 1977}}</ref> For a time in the early 1980s, HBO produced a concert special almost every other month, featuring major music stars such as [[Boy George]] and [[the Who]]. After [[MTV]]'s successful rollout in 1981, the ''Standing Room Only'' series began to produce fewer concerts, eventually ending on May 24, 1987 (with the premiere of the [[Liza Minnelli]] concert special ''Liza in London''); HBO's concert telecasts also began to focus more on "world class" music events featuring artists such as [[Elton John]], [[Whitney Houston]], [[Tina Turner]] and [[Barbra Streisand]], as well as fundraisers such as [[Farm Aid]].<ref name="An Original Voice"/> ''[[Michael Jackson]]: Live in [[Bucharest]]'', recorded on the first leg of his 1992–93 [[Dangerous World Tour]], holds the record as HBO's highest-rated special with 3.7 million viewers (21.4 rating/34 share) watching the October 10, 1992, premiere telecast. The special is also believed to be the largest financial deal for a televised concert performance on television, with estimates from music industry executives indicating that HBO paid around $20 million for the rights.<ref>{{cite web|title=Jackson concert sets HBO record|url=https://variety.com/1992/music/news/jackson-concert-sets-hbo-record-101198/|periodical=Variety|date=October 15, 1992|access-date=July 7, 2020}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|title=Michael Jackson, Live, On HBO in October|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1992/08/13/arts/michael-jackson-live-on-hbo-in-october.html|newspaper=The New York Times|date=August 13, 1992|access-date=July 7, 2020}}</ref> In recent years, concert specials have had an increasingly marginal role among HBO's television specials, limited to an occasional marquee event or the annual induction ceremony of the [[Rock and Roll Hall of Fame]]. ===Sports programming=== [[File:HBO Sports logo.svg|275px|right]] HBO broadcasts sports-related magazine and documentary series produced by HBO Sports, an in-house production division managed by Warner Bros. Discovery Sports (previously through Time Warner Sports from 1990 to 2018) that also produced selected sports event telecasts for the channel from its November 1972 launch until December 2018. HBO Sports has been headed by several well-known television executives over the years, including its founder Steve Powell (later head of programming at [[ESPN]]), Dave Meister (later head of the [[Tennis Channel]]), Seth Abraham (later head of [[MSG (TV network)|MSG Network]]),<ref name="An Original Voice"/> and [[Ross Greenburg]]. ====Professional and tournament sports==== As HBO was being developed, the Time Inc./Sterling Communications partnership elected a local origination channel operated by Sterling Manhattan Cable Television (which served as the progenitor of the MSG Network) to handle production responsibilities for home game broadcasts involving the [[New York Knicks]] and [[New York Rangers]]—both based at [[Madison Square Garden]]—that would be televised on HBO throughout its initial Mid-Atlantic U.S. service area. (HBO founder Charles Dolan, through Cablevision, would purchase the arena and its headlining sports teams in a $1.075-billion joint bid with the [[ITT Corporation]] in August 1994; his son, [[James L. Dolan]], has owned the Knicks and Rangers through [[The Madison Square Garden Company]] since 2015, and Madison Square Garden through [[Madison Square Garden Entertainment]] by way of the former company's 2020 spin-off of its non-sports entertainment assets.) The contracts related to this arrangement dated to May 1969, when Manhattan Cable Television first signed a one-year, $300,000 contract with Madison Square Garden to broadcast 125 sports events held at the arena, and was extended for five additional years in November 1970.<ref>{{cite magazine |title=N.Y. CATV, Garden make sports deal |periodical=Broadcasting |page=22 |date=May 26, 1969}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|title=THE GARDEN SALE: THE DEAL; Madison Sq. Garden Deal Is a Victory for Viacom|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1994/08/29/business/the-garden-sale-the-deal-madison-sq-garden-deal-is-a-victory-for-viacom.html|author=Geraldine Fabrikant|newspaper=The New York Times|date=August 29, 1994|access-date=July 17, 2020}}</ref><ref>{{cite magazine |title=CATV gets five-year TV sports contract |periodical=Broadcasting |page=51 |date=November 16, 1970}}<br />{{cite magazine |title=CATV gets five-year TV sports contract |periodical=Broadcasting |page=54 |date=November 16, 1970}}</ref> On November 1, 1972, one week before HBO formally launched, Madison Square Garden granted Sterling the rights to televise its sporting events to cable television systems outside New York City.<ref>{{cite magazine |title=How does your garden grow? |periodical=Broadcasting |page=51 |date=November 6, 1972}}</ref><ref name="nyt-sterlingmsgdeal">{{cite news |author=Louis Calta |date=November 2, 1972 |title=STERLING CABLE TV IN 200-EVENT DEAL |newspaper=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1972/11/02/archives/sterling-cable-tv-in-200event-deal-signs-with-madison-square-garden.html |access-date=July 17, 2020}}</ref> The first game under this arrangement was the New York Rangers-Vancouver Canucks NHL game that launched Home Box Office on November 8, 1972, and served as its inaugural sports broadcast. For the 1974–75 Rangers and Islanders seasons, HBO contracted MSG announcers for play-by-play and color commentating duties; this created a burden on announcers to fill what otherwise would be [[dead air]] over the HBO feed of the games, since the service does not accept advertising, during the MSG Network's commercial airtime. [[National Basketball Association]] (NBA) and [[National Hockey League]] (NHL) coverage expanded with HBO's transition into a national satellite service, covering non-New York-based teams in both leagues (including the NBA's [[Milwaukee Bucks]], [[Boston Celtics]], [[Portland Trail Blazers]], [[Golden State Warriors]] and [[Los Angeles Lakers]]; and the NHL's [[Los Angeles Kings]]) under individual agreements as well as select playoff games.<ref name="b&c-hbograbssports">{{cite magazine |title=HBO grabs more sports |periodical=Broadcasting |page=49 |date=November 24, 1975}}</ref><ref>{{cite magazine |title=Program Briefs: Partners. |periodical=Broadcasting |page=68 |date=February 16, 1976}}</ref> (The NBA and NHL discontinued their HBO telecasts after their respective 1976–77 seasons. In May 1978, the [[New York Supreme Court]] ruled then-Islanders and Nets president [[Roy Boe]] had [[breach of contract|breached an exclusive contract]] with Dolan's successor firm Long Island Cable Communications Development Co. through the HBO agreement and concurring contracts with other New York-area cable systems.<ref>{{cite magazine |title=Cable firm wins suit against sports owner |periodical=Broadcasting |page=75 |date=May 22, 1978}}</ref>) In 1974, the network acquired the rights to broadcast [[World Football League]] (WFL) games from the [[Charlotte Hornets (WFL)|New York Stars]] (later relocated to [[Charlotte, North Carolina|Charlotte]] as the Charlotte Hornets midway through the WFL's [[1974 World Football League season|inaugural season]]) and the [[Philadelphia Bell]]; 18 WFL games aired on HBO throughout two seasons until the league abruptly folded midway through the [[1975 World Football League season|1975 season]].<ref name="b&c-04291974">{{cite magazine |title=Pay television reaches 12% penetration on cable systems where it's offered |periodical=Broadcasting |page=25 |date=April 29, 1974}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=WFL on HBO Sports|url=http://wfl.charlottehornetswfl.com/pages_1974/hbo.php|website=WFL Charlotte Hornets|access-date=July 17, 2020}}</ref> In March 1973, HBO signed a $1.5-million contract to acquire the regional rights to a selection of [[American Basketball Association]] (ABA) games for five years; notably, it carried the [[1976 ABA Playoffs|1976 ABA Finals]]—the league's last tournament game before the completion of its merger with the NBA—a six-game tournament in which the [[Brooklyn Nets|New York Nets]] beat the [[Denver Nuggets]] four games to two. The merger of the two professional basketball leagues resulted in an early termination of HBO's ABA contract, which was originally set to expire on July 1, 1977, following the conclusion of the 1975–76 season.<ref>{{cite magazine |title=Cable, pay TV make inroads on pro sports |periodical=Broadcasting |page=118 |date=March 19, 1973}}</ref> Through 1977, HBO carried other sporting events originating on the Sterling Manhattan/Manhattan Cable sports channel, including [[World Hockey Association]] regular season and playoff games; [[Eastern College Athletic Conference]] (ECAC) tournaments (including the [[ECAC Hockey Men's Ice Hockey Tournament|Men's Ice Hockey Tournament]] and the ECAC Holiday Festival basketball tournament); [[World TeamTennis]]; international [[high school basketball]] invitationals; the [[National Horse Show]]; [[harness racing]] events from [[Yonkers Raceway & Empire City Casino|Yonkers Raceway]]; equestrian, [[roller derby]] and ice skating events; the [[Professional Karate Association|World Professional Karate Championships]]; the [[Millrose Games]] track and field invitational; the [[American Kennel Club|Westchester Kennel Club Dog Show]]; and [[Capitol Wrestling Corporation|World Wide Wrestling Federation]] matches. (The regionalized sports focus was soon copied by other local subscription television services launched during the 1970s and early 1980s, most notably [[PRISM (TV channel)|PRISM]], [[ONTV (pay TV)|ONTV]] and [[Wometco Home Theater]].) [[NCAA Division I|NCAA Division I college basketball]] games held at Madison Square Garden and, after becoming a national service, other venues (including the [[National Invitational Tournament]] and the Holiday Basketball Festival) were also carried by the network until the 1978–79 season.<ref>{{cite magazine |title=Trotters for a price |periodical=Broadcasting |page=50 |date=May 28, 1973}}</ref> HBO also provided regional coverage of [[New York Yankees]] baseball games for the 1974 season. New York independent station [[WPIX]] (now a [[The CW|CW]] affiliate) provided microwave signal pickup assistance to HBO for the telecasts; through its right of first refusal on game selection in its local television contract with the team, covering the team's away games, WPIX preempted planned coverage of four Yankees games that HBO was scheduled to carry that season. (The [[Philadelphia Phillies]] reportedly rejected an offer for HBO to televise regular season games not shown locally on independent [[WPHL-TV]] [now a [[MyNetworkTV]] affiliate].<ref>{{cite magazine |title=Pay cable and sports trouble independents |periodical=Broadcasting |page=79 |date=April 2, 1973}}</ref>) HBO's Yankees telecast spurred a complaint filed in June 1974 by [[National Association of Broadcasters]] Special Committee on Pay TV chairman Willard Walbridge, who alleged they violated anti-siphoning rules barring pay television services from carrying live sports televised regularly on broadcast stations within two years. HBO representatives contended that regulatory interference over the game broadcasts was prohibited under the [[First Amendment of the United States Constitution|First Amendment]] and that it offered only weekday games as WPIX held rights to selected Yankees weekend games; it also contended the anti-siphoning rules did not apply as there was not a per-program charge for the broadcasts. In September 1974, citing the games were unavailable on broadcast television, the FCC gave temporary authorization for HBO to carry no more than three of the team's remaining regular season games. (The Yankees telecasts ran only for that season.)<ref name="b&c-04291974"/><ref>{{cite magazine |title=Walbridge damns Yankees on pay cable |periodical=Broadcasting |page=56 |date=June 24, 1974}}<br />{{cite magazine |title=Walbridge damns Yankees on pay cable |periodical=Broadcasting |page=57 |date=June 24, 1974}}</ref><ref>{{cite magazine |title=FCC to question HBO on its pay-cable of Yankees |periodical=Broadcasting |page=33 |date=July 29, 1974}}<br />{{cite magazine |title=FCC to question HBO on its pay-cable of Yankees |periodical=Broadcasting |page=34 |date=July 29, 1974}}</ref><ref>{{cite magazine |title=HBO claims prohibition on Yankee games usurps its freedom of speech |periodical=Broadcasting |page=81 |date=August 19, 1974}}</ref><ref>{{cite magazine |title=FCC ad-hocs HBO-Yankees issue |periodical=Broadcasting |page=56 |date=September 23, 1974}}</ref><ref>{{cite thesis |title=Cable Television and Sports |author=Lawrence Walter Lynn |type=MA thesis |publisher=[[Michigan State University]] |year=1975 |url=https://d.lib.msu.edu/etd/14804/datastream/OBJ/View/ |access-date=November 11, 2020 |doi=10.25335/M5CC0TW0V |archive-date=November 11, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221111192939/https://d.lib.msu.edu/etd/14804/datastream/OBJ/View/ |url-status=dead }}</ref> From 1973 to 1976, HBO carried [[Professional Bowlers Association]] (PBA) [[HBO Sports Bowling|tournament events]]; beginning with the Winston-Salem Open on June 10, 1973, the network aired around 25 PBA tournaments, including eight which HBO co-sponsored over those three years. [[Dick Stockton]], [[Marty Glickman]] and [[Spencer Ross]] served as [[play-by-play]] announcers, and Skee Foremsky acted as the [[color commentator]] for the bowling telecasts.<ref>{{cite web|title=Just Paying Attention|url=http://www.thebowlingnews.net/pdf/02-09-17_Bowling_news-WEB.pdf|author=Mark London|website=The Bowling News|date=February 9, 2017|access-date=July 7, 2020}}{{Dead link|date=October 2022 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}</ref><ref>{{cite AV media|via=YouTube|title=1974 PBA New Jersey Open Introduction|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Yg-pQC96Qw |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211222/2Yg-pQC96Qw |archive-date=2021-12-22 |url-status=live|access-date=October 5, 2012}}{{cbignore}}</ref> With the assistance of programming consultation and acquisition firm [[IMG (company)|Trans World International]],<ref>{{cite magazine |title=Cable Briefs |periodical=Broadcasting |page=62 |date=September 22, 1975}}</ref> the expansion into a national service resulted in HBO expanding its sports coverage to include a broader array of events from the United States and Canada, including the [[North American Soccer League (1968–1984)|North American Soccer League]] (1976–1978), select [[Amateur Athletic Union]] tournaments (1976–1981), select [[LPGA]] golf tournaments (1976–1978), championship rodeo (1976–1978), the [[USA Gymnastics National Championships|USGF National Gymnastics Championships]] (1976–1981), [[Skate Canada International]] (1976–1978), the [[Canadian Football League]] (1976–1978), non-basketball NCAA tournaments including the [[NCAA Men's Gymnastics Championships|Men's Gymnastics Championships]] (1976–1978) and the [[NCAA Division I Baseball Championship|Division I Baseball Championships]] (1977–1978). Most of the aforementioned events ceased to be part of HBO's sports offerings in 1978, citing much of its sporting events generally had regional appeal, "don't repeat" and were readily abundant on commercial television.<ref name="b&c-hbolevin">{{cite magazine |date=October 17, 1977 |title=Cablecastings: HBO: point man for an industry makes it into the clear |page=50 |periodical=Broadcasting}}<br />{{cite magazine |date=October 17, 1977 |title=Cablecastings: HBO: point man for an industry makes it into the clear |page=51 |periodical=Broadcasting}}<br />{{cite magazine |date=October 17, 1977 |title=Cablecastings: HBO: point man for an industry makes it into the clear |page=52 |periodical=Broadcasting}}<br />{{cite magazine |date=October 17, 1977 |title=Cablecastings: HBO: point man for an industry makes it into the clear |page=53 |periodical=Broadcasting}}</ref> The NCAA regular season and tournament events remained on HBO until the 1978–79 athletic season, shifting over to upstart basic cable network ESPN beginning with the 1979–80 athletic season under an exclusive national cable deal with the organization; USGF, AAU and select non-NCAA invitational events remained on the network until early 1981, thereafter limiting HBO's sports rights to boxing and Wimbledon.<ref>{{cite magazine |title=In Brief |periodical=Broadcasting |page=39 |date=February 26, 1979}}</ref> ====Wimbledon tennis==== In [[1975 Wimbledon Championships|July 1975]], HBO inaugurated regional coverage of the [[The Championships, Wimbledon|Wimbledon]] tennis tournament for its Mid-Atlantic U.S. subscribers. (That year saw [[Arthur Ashe]] defeat defending champion [[Jimmy Connors]], 6–1, 6–1, 5–7, 6–4, in the [[1975 Wimbledon Championships – Men's Singles|Gentlemen's Singles final]], becoming the first Black male to win a Wimbledon singles title.<ref>{{cite news|title=1975: Ashe's Wimbledon win makes history|url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/july/5/newsid_2798000/2798971.stm|website=BBC News|access-date=July 7, 2020}}</ref>) Initially, the HBO telecasts of the tournament mainly consisted of replays culled from other video sources (including the [[BBC]]); HBO Sports began to employ an in-house team of commentators starting with the [[1978 Wimbledon Championships|1978 tournament]].<ref>{{cite news|title=LIVE, FROM WIMBLEDON, HBO SET TO SERVE|url=https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-xpm-1994-06-20-9406200170-story.html|author=Steve Nidetz|newspaper=Chicago Tribune|date=June 20, 1994|access-date=July 7, 2020}}</ref> Throughout its tenure on the channel, Wimbledon coverage on HBO, which was the first to offer weekday tennis coverage on network television, consisted of singles and doubles events from the early rounds of the tournament; [[Tennis on NBC#Wimbledon coverage|NBC]] (which had the over-the-air broadcast rights to Wimbledon since [[1969 Wimbledon Championships|1969]]) maintained rights to the quarterfinal, semi-final and final rounds as well as weekend early-round matches. (Before the arrival of Wimbledon, HBO also carried the men's and women's rounds of the [[U.S. National Indoor Championships]] from 1972 to 1976 and selected [[WTA Tour]] events from 1977 to 1979.<ref>{{cite magazine |title=Cable briefs: Net gain for HBO. |periodical=Broadcasting |page=79 |date=February 21, 1977}}</ref>) On June 25, 1999, HBO Sports announced it would not renew its share of the Wimbledon television contract after the conclusion of [[1999 Wimbledon Championships|that year]]'s tournament, ending its 25-year broadcast relationship with the [[Grand Slam (tennis)|Grand Slam]] event. Seth Abraham, then-president of HBO Sports parent unit Time Warner Sports, said at the time that the decision was guided by a need to "refresh" its programming slate rather than because of issues with financial terms or stagnant viewership. (At the time of the announcement, HBO paid $8 million annually—under a $40-million deal over five years—to air the tournament.)<ref>{{cite news|title=TENNIS: WIMBLEDON; HBO Won't Renew Wimbledon Deal|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1999/06/26/sports/tennis-wimbledon-hbo-won-t-renew-wimbledon-deal.html|author=Richard Sandomir|newspaper=The New York Times|date=June 26, 1999|access-date=July 7, 2020}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=HBO Bids Adieu to Wimbledon|url=https://www.multichannel.com/news/hbo-bids-adieu-wimbledon-154866|author=R. Thomas Umstead|periodical=Multichannel News|date=July 4, 1999|access-date=July 7, 2020}}</ref> Although ESPN, [[Fox Sports Networks|Fox Sports Net]] and [[USA Network]] each expressed interest in obtaining the cable package relinquished by HBO, Time Warner kept that portion of the Wimbledon contract within its corporate umbrella: on January 23, 2000, a co-owned subsidiary [[Turner Broadcasting System]] and NBC reached a joint three-year, $30 million contract with the [[All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club]] for the tournament rights. TNT (which would be folded into WarnerMedia Entertainment, alongside HBO, as part of the realignment resulting from AT&T's 2018 acquisition of Time Warner) and [[CNN/SI]] (later moved to the now-defunct [[CNNfn]] in 2002, after CNN/SI's shutdown), which would have their broadcasts produced through the [[Turner Sports|TNT Sports]] unit, assumed cable rights to the event beginning with the [[2000 Wimbledon Championships|2000 tournament]].<ref>{{cite news|title=PLUS: BROADCASTING; Wimbledon Deals Total $30 Million|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2000/01/19/sports/plus-broadcasting-wimbledon-deals-total-30-million.html|author=Richard Sandomir|newspaper=The New York Times|date=January 19, 2000|access-date=July 7, 2020}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|title=HBO Won't Renew Contract to Cover Wimbledon|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/sports/tennis/longterm/1999/wimbledon/articles/hbo29.htm|author=Jeff Goodman|agency=Associated Press|newspaper=The Washington Post|date=June 28, 1999|access-date=July 7, 2020}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=Turner, NBC Double Up for Wimbledon|url=https://www.multichannel.com/news/turner-nbc-double-wimbledon-159580|author=R. Thomas Umstead|periodical=Multichannel News|date=January 2, 2000|access-date=July 7, 2020}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=Wimbledon gets big TV deal|url=https://www.sportsbusinessdaily.com/Journal/Issues/2000/01/24/No-Topic-Name/Wimbledon-Gets-Big-TV-Deal.aspx|author=Langdon Brockinton|website=Sports Business Daily|date=January 24, 2000|access-date=July 7, 2020}}</ref> (Since 2003, the Wimbledon cable rights have been held by ESPN, which assumed full U.S. television exclusivity over the championship in [[2012 Wimbledon Championships|2012]].)<ref>{{cite news|title=ESPN, Wimbledon come to terms|url=https://www.upi.com/Sports_News/2003/04/14/ESPN-Wimbledon-come-to-terms/27281050341777/|work=United Press International|date=April 14, 2003|access-date=July 7, 2020}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|title=ESPN Reaches Deal to Carry Wimbledon|url=http://straightsets.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/07/03/espn-reaches-deal-to-carry-wimbledon/|author=Richard Sandomir|newspaper=The New York Times|date=July 3, 2011|access-date=July 7, 2020}}</ref> Professional tennis briefly returned to HBO on March 2, 2009, when it broadcast the inaugural edition of the now-defunct [[BNP Paribas Showdown]] as a one-off special presentation.<ref>{{cite web|title=HBO SETS TENNIS TALENT LINEUP FOR MARCH 2|url=https://sportsmedianews.com/hbo-sets-tennis-talent-lineup-for-march-2/|website=Sports Media News|date=February 10, 2009|access-date=July 7, 2020}}</ref> ====Boxing==== {{Main|HBO World Championship Boxing}} HBO's sports coverage was long synonymous with its boxing telecasts, fronted by matches featured on HBO Sports' longtime flagship series, ''HBO World Championship Boxing''. Its first boxing telecast, on January 22, 1973, was "[[Joe Frazier vs. George Foreman|The Sunshine Showdown]]", the world [[heavyweight]] championship bout from [[Kingston, Jamaica]] in which [[George Foreman]] defeated [[Joe Frazier]] in two rounds. Outside of high-profile matches held at exotic locales, most of the boxing events shown during HBO's early existence as a regional service were bouts held at Madison Square Garden; once HBO became a national service, boxing coverage began to regularly cover fights held at [[The Forum (Inglewood, California)|The Forum]] (as part of its television contract with the Los Angeles Lakers and Kings<ref name="b&c-hbograbssports"/>) and other arenas. On September 30, 1975, the "Thrilla in Manila" boxing match between Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier aired on HBO (under a licensing agreement with television program distributor Video Techniques) and was the first program on the network to be broadcast via satellite.<ref>{{cite magazine |title=In Brief |periodical=Broadcasting |page=18 |date=August 18, 1975}}</ref> (HBO also provided the first interconnected satellite demonstration broadcast on June 18, 1973, in which a heavyweight championship match between [[Jimmy Ellis (boxer)|Jimmy Ellis]] and [[Earnie Shavers]] was relayed via [[Anik (satellite)|Anik A]] to a closed-circuit system at the [[Anaheim Convention Center]] in [[Anaheim, California]] and to a Teleprompter Cable system in [[San Bernardino, California|San Bernardino]].)<ref>{{cite magazine |title=Domsat shows for Anaheim. |periodical=Broadcasting |page=60 |date=June 18, 1973}}</ref> Boxing telecasts aired on various scheduled nights through 1979, and mainly aired thereafter on Fridays; boxing telecasts moved to Saturdays full-time in 1987. (All boxing events shown on HBO aired on average in two- to three-week intervals.) Through 1979, HBO also carried various [[Golden Gloves|National Golden Gloves]] competitions, and from 1978 to 1979, carried the [[National Collegiate Boxing Association]] championships. HBO expanded its boxing content to [[pay-per-view]] in December 1990, when it created a production arm to distribute and organize marquee boxing matches in conjunction with participating promoters, TVKO (rebranded HBO PPV in 2001 and HBO Boxing Pay-Per-View in 2013); the first TVKO-produced boxing event was April 19, 1991, [[Evander Holyfield vs. George Foreman|"Battle of the Ages" bout]] between [[Evander Holyfield]] and [[George Foreman]]. (TVKO signed Holyfield away from Showtime, which had been carrying his matches since its ''[[Showtime Championship Boxing]]'' telecasts premiered in 1986, under an agreement with promoter [[Dan Duva]] during Holyfield's reign as cruiserweight champion.)<ref>{{cite magazine |title=HBO and Showtime Climb Into the PPV Ring |periodical=Broadcasting |page=28 |date=December 24, 1990}}<br />{{cite magazine |title=HBO and Showtime Climb Into the PPV Ring |periodical=Broadcasting |page=29 |date=December 24, 1990}}</ref> HBO expanded its boxing slate on February 3, 1996, when ''[[HBO Boxing After Dark]]'' (titled ''HBO Late Night Fights'' for its inaugural edition) premiered with title fights involving contenders in the [[super bantamweight|junior featherweight]] ([[Marco Antonio Barrera]] vs. [[Kennedy McKinney]]) and [[super flyweight|junior bantamweight]] ([[Johnny Tapia]] vs. Giovanni Andrade) classes. The program typically featured fight cards involving well-known contenders (generally those not designated as "championship" or "title" bouts), and up-and-coming boxing talents that had previously been featured mainly on basic cable boxing showcases (such as ESPN's ''[[Friday Night Fights]]''). A second franchise extension, ''[[KO Nation]]'' (which ran from May 6, 2000, to August 11, 2001), attempted to incorporate [[hip-hop]] music performances between matches involving up-and-coming boxers to attract the show's target audience of males 18 to 24 (later broadened to ages 18 to 34) to the sport; former ''[[Yo! MTV Raps]]'' VJ [[Ed Lover]] was the "face" of the show and acted as its ring announcer. (Internal research stated that males aged 18–34 accounted for 3% of boxing viewership, while men 50 and older made up 60% of the sport's audience.)<ref>{{cite web|title=HBO seeks younger auds with 'KO'|url=https://variety.com/2000/tv/news/hbo-seeks-younger-auds-with-ko-1117778808/|author=R. Thomas Umstead|periodical=Variety|date=February 27, 2000|access-date=July 7, 2020}}</ref><ref>{{cite magazine |title=HBO adds afternoon boxing series |periodical=Broadcasting & Cable |page=69 |date=February 28, 2000}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=HBO Has High Hopes For New KO Nation|url=https://www.multichannel.com/news/hbo-has-high-hopes-new-ko-nation-152794|author=R. Thomas Umstead|periodical=Multichannel News|date=August 20, 2000|access-date=July 7, 2020}}</ref> ''KO Nation'' drew low ratings throughout its run, even after it was moved from Saturday afternoons to Saturday late nights in January 2001. HBO Sports then refocused its efforts at attracting younger viewers through ''Boxing After Dark''.<ref>{{cite web|title=HBO Sports plans to take boxing series 'KO Nation' into the night|url=https://www.sportsbusinessdaily.com/Journal/Issues/2000/11/27/This-Weeks-Issue/HBO-Sports-Plans-To-Take-Boxing-Series-KO-Nation-Into-The-Night.aspx|author=Langdon Brockinton|periodical=Sports Business Daily|date=November 27, 2000|access-date=July 7, 2020}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=HBO Knocks Out KO Nation|url=https://www.multichannel.com/news/hbo-knocks-out-ko-nation-139493|author=R. Thomas Umstead|periodical=Multichannel News|date=July 2, 2001|access-date=July 7, 2020}}</ref> To court the sport's Hispanic and Latino fans, the network's boxing franchises expanded to HBO Latino with the January 2003 premiere of ''[[Oscar De La Hoya]] Presenta Boxeo De Oro'', a showcase of up-and-coming boxers represented by the De La Hoya-founded [[Golden Boy Promotions]]. A second boxing series for HBO Latino, ''Generación Boxeo'', premiered on the multiplex channel in April 2006.<ref>{{cite web|title=HBO Latino Enters the Ring|url=https://www.multichannel.com/news/hbo-latino-enters-ring-136521|periodical=Multichannel News|date=October 9, 2002|access-date=May 9, 2020}}</ref><ref>{{cite press release|title=HBO Latino Launches New Boxing Series, Generación Boxeo, Debuting Exclusively, Thursday, April 27|url=https://www.warnermediagroup.com/newsroom/press-releases/2006/04/24/hbo-latino-launches-new-boxing-series-generaci-n-boxeo-debuting|website=WarnerMedia|date=April 24, 2006|access-date=May 9, 2020}}</ref> On September 27, 2018, HBO announced it would discontinue its boxing telecasts after 45 years, following its last televised match on October 27, marking the end of live sports on the network. (Two additional ''World Championship Boxing''/''Boxing After Dark'' cards would follow that originally scheduled final broadcast, airing respectively on November 24 and December 8, 2018.) HBO's decision to bow out of boxing telecasts was due to factors that included the influx of sports-based streaming services (such as [[DAZN]] and [[ESPN+]]) and issues with [[Promoter (entertainment)|promoters]] that hampered its ability to acquire high-profile fight cards, and resulting declining ratings and loss of interest in the sport among HBO's subscribers. Also factoring into the move was HBO parent WarnerMedia's then-recent ownership transfer to AT&T, and the network's efforts to focus on its scripted programming; network executives thought that "HBO [was] not a sports network."<ref>{{cite news|title=HBO Says It Is Leaving the Boxing Business|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/27/sports/hbo-boxing.html|author=Wallace Matthews|newspaper=The New York Times|date=September 27, 2018|access-date=September 27, 2018}}</ref> Since then, although it no longer produces sporting event telecasts, HBO Sports has continued to exist as a production unit for the network's sports magazine shows and documentaries. ====Magazine and documentary series==== Since 1977, HBO has offered documentary- and interview-based weekly series focusing on athletes and the world of athletics. On September 22, 1977, HBO premiered the channel's first original weekly series, and its first sports-related documentary and analysis series, ''Inside the NFL'', a program that featured post-game highlights and analysis of the previous week's marquee [[National Football League]] games (using footage provided by [[NFL Films]]) as well as interviews with players, coaches and team management. The program was one of the first studio shows on cable television to offer weekly NFL game reviews, predating the launches of similar football review shows on ESPN and other sports-centered cable networks. ''[[Inside the NFL]]'' would go on to become the network's longest-running program, airing for 31 seasons until it ended its HBO run in February 2008. (After HBO canceled the program, ''Inside the NFL'' was subsequently acquired by Showtime, under arrangement with [[CBS Sports]], formally moving to the rival premium channel in September 2008.)<ref>{{cite magazine |title=HBO fills in its hand for fall |periodical=Broadcasting |page=63 |date=September 12, 1977}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|title='Inside the NFL' ending 31-year run on HBO|url=https://usatoday30.usatoday.com/sports/football/2008-02-06-3063546697_x.htm|agency=[[Associated Press]]|newspaper=[[USA Today]]|date=February 6, 2008|access-date=July 7, 2020}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=CBS, Showtime go 'Inside the NFL'|url=https://variety.com/2008/scene/news/cbs-showtime-go-inside-the-nfl-1117986847/|periodical=Variety|date=June 3, 2008|access-date=July 7, 2020}}</ref> The network would build upon the concept behind ''Inside the NFL'' through the debuts of additional sports talk and documentary programs: the [[Major League Baseball]]-focused ''[[Race for the Pennant]]'' (1978–1992), ''HBO Sports Magazine'' (1981–1982), ''[[On the Record with Bob Costas]]'' (2001–2005) and its revamped iteration ''[[Costas Now]]'' (2005–2009), and ''[[Joe Buck Live]]'' (2009). Another program built on similar groundwork, ''[[Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel]]''—which eventually became the network's flagship sports [[newsmagazine]]—premiered on April 2, 1995, and lasted for 29 seasons before ending on December 19, 2023. The hour-long monthly series (originally airing quarterly until 1999), hosted by veteran television journalist and sportscaster [[Bryant Gumbel]], regularly received positive reviews for its groundbreaking journalism and typically features four stories centering on societal and athletic issues associated with the sports world, investigative reports, and interviews with famous athletes and other sports figures. {{As of|2020}}, ''Real Sports'' has received 33 [[Sports Emmy Awards]] (including 19 for Outstanding Sports Journalism) throughout its run, as well as two Peabody Awards (in 2012 and 2016) and three [[Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University Award]]s.<ref>{{cite news|title=A REALLY GOOD SHOW CELEBRATES 10 YEARS|url=https://www.nydailynews.com/os-xpm-2005-04-08-0504080218-story.html|author=Scott Andera|newspaper=[[Orlando Sentinel]]|date=April 8, 2005|access-date=July 7, 2020|archive-date=July 8, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200708142113/https://www.nydailynews.com/os-xpm-2005-04-08-0504080218-story.html|url-status=dead}}</ref> Of note, the show's 2004 Sports Emmy win for "Outstanding Sports Journalism" and 2006 duPont–Columbia University Award win for "Outstanding Broadcast Journalism" was for a half-hour hidden camera investigative report—guided by human rights activist [[Ansar Burney]]—into slavery and torture in secret desert camps in the [[United Arab Emirates]] (UAE), where boys younger than age 5 were trained in [[camel racing]]. The segment uncovered a carefully hidden [[child slavery]] ring that bought or [[kidnapping|kidnapped]] hundreds of young boys in [[Pakistan]] and [[Bangladesh]], who were then forced to become camel jockeys in the UAE and questioned the sincerity of U.S. diplomatic pressure on the UAE, an ally to the United States, to comply with the country's ban on children under age 15 from participating in camel racing. The documentary brought worldwide attention to the plight of child camel jockeys in the Middle East and helped the Ansar Burney Trust convince the governments of [[Qatar]] and the UAE to end the use of children in the sport. In 2001, HBO and [[NFL Films]] began to jointly produce the documentary series ''[[Hard Knocks (2001 TV series)|Hard Knocks]]'', which follows an individual [[National Football League|NFL]] team each season during [[training camp]] and their preparations for the upcoming football season.<ref name="An Original Voice"/><ref>{{cite web|title=HBO Hard Knocks|url=http://www.hbo.com/hardknocks/|publisher=Home Box Office, Inc.|access-date=October 5, 2012}}</ref> Summary: Please note that all contributions to Christianpedia may be edited, altered, or removed by other contributors. If you do not want your writing to be edited mercilessly, then do not submit it here. You are also promising us that you wrote this yourself, or copied it from a public domain or similar free resource (see Christianpedia:Copyrights for details). Do not submit copyrighted work without permission! Cancel Editing help (opens in new window) Discuss this page