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! === Former sister channels === * Take 2 (informally referred to as "HBO Take 2") was an American premium cable television network that was owned by Home Box Office, Inc., then a subsidiary of the Time-Life division of Time Inc., and which operated from April 1979 to January 1981. Marketed to a family audience and the first attempt at a companion pay service by the corporate HBO entity, the channel's programming consisted of recent and older theatrically released motion pictures. Take 2 was the first of three efforts by HBO to maintain a family-oriented pay service, predating the similarly formatted and short-lived mini-pay service Festival (launched in 1986) and the present-day multiplex channel HBO Family (launched in 1996). On September 21, 1978, Home Box Office Inc. announced it would launch a family-oriented companion "mini-pay" premium service (a channel marketed as a lower-priced pay add-on to cable operators, often sold in a tier with co-owned or competing premium services), which would be transmitted via a fourth Satcom I transponder leased to HBO.<ref name="b&c-take2">{{cite magazine |title=In Brief |periodical=Broadcasting |page=10 |date=September 25, 1978}}</ref> Originally planned to launch around January 1, Take 2 launched on April 1, 1979; developed at the request of HBO's affiliate cable providers to meet consumer demand for an additional pay television offering, Take 2 was designed to cater to family audiences and, like HBO's later family programming services (Festival and HBO Family), structured its theatrical inventory to exclude R-rated films. The service's format was intended to cater to prospective customers who were reluctant to pay for an HBO subscription because of its cost and the potentially objectionable content in some of its programming.<ref name="b&c-take2" /> The network maintained distinct showcase blocks that aired at various times throughout its schedule: "''Movie of the Week''" (a weekly prime-time presentation of network-premiere theatrical films), "''Center Stage''" (featuring movies and specials with leading entertainers), "''Family Theater''" (a showcase of G-rated films for family viewing), "''Passport''" (an anthology block featuring programs ranging from "popular entertainment to cultural events") and "''Merry-Go-Round''" (a showcase of children's movies, specials, and short films). G- and PG-rated movies shown on Take 2 usually made their debut on the service no less than 60 days after their initial telecast on HBO.<ref name="Movie Duels" /><ref name="b&c-take2" /> Slow subscriber growth and difficulties leveraging HBO's increasingly wide cable carriage to ensure supportable distribution forced the shutdown of Take 2 on January 31, 1981.<ref name="Movie Duels" /> At the time of its shutdown, HBO was already placing resources to grow its secondary, lower-cost "maxi-pay" service, Cinemax, which launched in August 1980 and, in its first four years of operation, experienced comparatively greater success than Take 2 did in its briefer existence with its mix of recent and older movies (including unedited, commercial-free broadcasts of movies released during the [[Classical Hollywood cinema|"Golden Age" of Hollywood film]]). (Cinemax replaced Take 2 as an add-on to HBO on many cable systems that carried the latter.)[[File:hbosfestival.png|200px|right|Festival logo]] * [[Festival (TV channel)|Festival]] was an American premium cable television network that was owned by Home Box Office, Inc., then a subsidiary of Time Inc., which operated from 1986 to 1988. The channel's programming consisted of uncut and [[Re-edited film|re-edited]] versions of recent and older theatrically released motion pictures, along with original music, comedy, and [[nature]] specials sourced from the parent HBO channel aimed at a family audience. On April 1, 1986, HBO began test-marketing Festival on six cable systems owned by then-sister company American Television and Communications Corporation.<ref name="nyt-festival">{{cite news|title=HBO TO TEST A NEW SERVICE, FESTIVAL|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1986/02/13/arts/hbo-to-test-a-new-service-festival.html|author=Thomas Morgan|newspaper=The New York Times|date=February 13, 1986|access-date=July 7, 2020}}</ref><ref name="Festival program guide 1987">{{citation|title=Festival program guide|publisher=Home Box Office, Inc.|year=1987}}</ref><ref>{{cite magazine |title=Burgeoning world of cable programing |periodical=Broadcasting |page=10 |date=June 16, 1986}}<br />{{cite magazine |title=Burgeoning world of cable programing |periodical=Broadcasting |page=11 |date=June 16, 1986}}</ref><ref name="b&c-festivallaunch">{{cite magazine |title=Cablecastings: Festival expansion |periodical=Broadcasting |page=10 |date=April 7, 1986}}</ref> It was aimed at older audiences who objected to programming containing violence and sexual situations on other premium services, television viewers that did not already have cable service, and basic cable subscribers with no existing subscription to a premium service, focusing classic and recent hit movies, documentaries, and HBO's original stand-up comedy, concert, nature and [[ice skating]] specials. Notably for a premium service, Festival aired re-edited R-rated movies intended to fit a PG rating.<ref name="festival-011988">{{citation|title=Festival program guide|publisher=Home Box Office Inc.|page=Front cover|date=January 1988}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|title=HBO Launching Service To Attract Older Audience|url=http://articles.sun-sentinel.com/1986-02-17/features/8601100851_1_hbo-festival-new-channel|author=Thomas Morgan|newspaper=[[Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel]]|date=February 17, 1986|access-date=October 12, 2012|archive-date=May 27, 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130527091253/http://articles.sun-sentinel.com/1986-02-17/features/8601100851_1_hbo-festival-new-channel|url-status=dead}}</ref> Festival ceased operations on December 31, 1988; Home Box Office, Inc. cited the inability to expand distribution because of channel capacity limitations at most cable company headends for the closure of the channel. At the time of its shutdown, Festival had an estimated 30,000 subscribers, far below HBO's reach of 15.9 million subscribers and a distant last place in subscriber count among the eight American premium cable services in operation at the time.<ref name="HBO Expanding the Brand" /><ref name="Festival program guide 1987" /><ref>{{cite magazine |title=HBO changes marketing plan for Festival |periodical=Broadcasting |date=June 20, 1988}}</ref><ref>{{cite magazine |title=The Cable Network Programming Universe |periodical=Broadcasting |page=41 |date=May 30, 1988}}</ref><ref>{{cite magazine |title=HBO's Festival to go dark |periodical=Broadcasting |page=61 |date=July 18, 1988}}</ref> * Selecciones en EspaƱol de HBO y Cinemax (later renamed HBO en EspaƱol in September 1993) was an American Spanish language premium cable television service that was owned by Home Box Office, Inc., then a subsidiary of Time Warner, which operated from 1989 to 2000. The service's programming consisted of Spanish-dubbed versions of recent and older theatrically released motion pictures, and select HBO original and event programming aimed at a Hispanic and Latino audience. The service is a predecessor to HBO Latino, which replaced HBO en EspaƱol in November 2000. On January 2, 1989, Selecciones en EspaƱol de HBO y Cinemax ("''Spanish Selections from HBO and Cinemax''"), a Spanish-language audio feed transmitted through, depending on the cable system affiliate, either an auxiliary [[second audio program]] channel (accessible through built-in and external multichannel audio decoders) or [[Cable radio|audio simulcasts via FM radio]], launched. The serviceāwhich initially launched on 20 cable systems in [[media market|markets]] with significant Hispanic and Latino populations, and aimed specifically at Spanish-dominant and first-language Spanish speakersā<ref>{{cite news|title=HBO-Cinemax Experiment in Bilingual TV|url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1989-05-01-ca-2337-story.html|author=Victor Valle|newspaper=Los Angeles Times|date=May 1, 1989|access-date=June 30, 2020}}</ref><ref>{{cite magazine |title=Cablecastings: Second language |periodical=Broadcasting |page=76 |date=September 19, 1988}}</ref><ref name="HBO Expanding the Brand">{{cite web|title=It's Not TV: HBO, The Company That Changed Television: Expanding The Brand (Part 1)|url=http://www.soundonsight.org/its-not-tv-hbo-the-company-that-changed-television-expanding-the-brand-part-1/|author=Bill Mesce|work=Sound on Sight|date=November 6, 2013|access-date=February 1, 2014|archive-date=February 2, 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140202215756/http://www.soundonsight.org/its-not-tv-hbo-the-company-that-changed-television-expanding-the-brand-part-1/|url-status=dead}}</ref> originally provided Spanish-dubbed versions of recent feature film releases from HBO and Cinemax's movie suppliers. By that Spring, Selecciones's offerings expanded to include Spanish audio simulcasts of HBO's live boxing matches (except for certain events broadcast exclusively in Spanish on networks such as [[GalavisiĆ³n (USA)|GalavisiĆ³n]]). Selecciones en EspaƱol de HBO y Cinemaxāreplaced by two dedicated channel feeds, HBO en EspaƱol and Cinemax en EspaƱol, on September 27, 1993, effectively acting as part-time simulcast feeds with added first-run Spanish-language movies (mostly from Mexico, [[Argentina]] and Spain), and Spanish dubs of HBO's non-sports-event original programmingāquickly gained interest from providers, expanding to an additional 35 cable systems in various U.S. markets in the weeks following its debut.<ref name="HBO Expanding the Brand" /><ref>{{cite magazine |title=HBO to offer Spanish version |author=Rich Brown |periodical=Broadcasting |page=19 |date=May 31, 1993}}</ref><ref>{{cite magazine |title=More choices for cable subscribers |periodical=Broadcasting & Cable |page=32 |date=October 4, 1993}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=HBO reaches out to Hispanics; Home Box Office, Inc. forms HBO En Espanol|url=http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-14041790.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110511211754/http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1G1-14041790.html|url-status=dead|archive-date=May 11, 2011|author=Kim Mitchell|periodical=Multichannel News|date=May 31, 1993|access-date=February 23, 2011}}</ref> Summary: Please note that all contributions to Christianpedia may be edited, altered, or removed by other contributors. 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