List of HBO international channels

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
HBO
16:9 576i for the SDTV feed)
Ownership
OwnerHome Box Office, Inc.
(managed by Warner Bros. Discovery International)
ParentWarner Bros. Discovery
Sister channels
Links
Websitewww.hbo.com

Home Box Office (HBO)—originally established on November 8, 1972, as a

network in the United States—has, since 1991, expanded into a family of international pay television channels presently owned by Warner Bros. Discovery subsidiary Home Box Office, Inc. and operated through sister subsidiary Warner Bros. Discovery International or owned by third-party media companies through programming and brand licensing
partnerships.

In countries where an HBO-branded network does not exist in its own right, the network's programming is licensed instead to domestic pay television services or through a basic cable channel; all of which are permitted to refer to themselves as the "Home of HBO" since 2010, such as with

Fox Showcase and Binge in Australia, and Amazon Prime Video in France.[1][2]

Like its flagship U.S. channel, most of the international channels maintain a subscription-based model, in which they do not accept

U.S. Virgin Islands, therefore film rights for the international channels must be licensed separately.[3]

Branded services

The Americas

Brazil

TVA, Time Warner and Sony. It was developed as an analogue pay channel, but used UHF broadcast
frequencies and ran its programming for nine hours each day. After the Brazilian financial crisis of the late 1990s, Grupo Abril sold its share in the network to Time Warner.

Canada

Canadian rights to HBO-owned and -distributed programming are held by Bell Media, the mass-media unit of telecom company Bell Canada.[a] Programming is offered through Bell's Crave pay television service, which includes an HBO-branded multiplex channel that launched in 2008 and features the U.S. channel's original programming; the over-the-top Crave streaming service; and Bell's French-language pay service Super Écran, along with occasional airings of library programs on the company's basic cable channels. Outside of the required brand licensing to use the HBO trademarks and logo, HBO parent Warner Bros. Discovery does not have an ownership interest in these services, and, as such, the Canadian service is the only HBO channel that WBD does not operate.

The HBO multiplex channel was launched as HBO Canada on October 30, 2008, as a joint venture between two regional Canadian pay television services: Astral Media-owned The Movie Network (now Crave), which operated in provinces east of the Ontario-Manitoba border, and Corus Entertainment-owned Movie Central, which operated in provinces west of the aforementioned delineated border as well as the territories. Prior to that date, both services had regularly featured HBO programming on their other channels, however some programs had aired on (or were later syndicated to) other broadcast or basic cable channels.

Most Canadian licensing rights to HBO programming have been consolidated under Bell Media after the company assumed television rights and established streaming rights to the HBO back-catalog following the completion of its acquisition of Astral Media in 2014. The Canadian HBO service would become tied to a single national pay service, when, on November 19, 2015, Corus Entertainment reached an agreement with Bell in which it would agree to cancel Movie Central's pay television license, and sell the network's distribution rights and subscriber base to Bell for C$211 million, in order to allow The Movie Network to expand into Western Canada. In turn, Bell expanded its programming agreement with HBO, obtaining exclusive distribution rights to the HBO programming library on its linear television channels, video-on-demand and digital platforms. Bell assumed full control of HBO Canada on March 1, 2016, coinciding with TMN replacing Movie Central on providers in the western half of Canada upon commencing distribution as a national service.[4][5]

Crave also holds domestic linear pay television and streaming rights to the majority of theatrical films that premiere in the U.S. on HBO, although films from Warner Bros. Pictures, 20th Century Studios and Universal Pictures air primarily on Crave, Starz and their corresponding linear multiplex channels; the Canadian HBO linear channel exclusively airs the network's original series and films.

The Caribbean

HBO Caribbean offers English-language broadcasts of HBO material geared towards the English- and Dutch-speaking

Multi-Choice TV
.

Latin America

Originally known as HBO OLÉ, HBO Latin America Group originated in 1991 as a partnership between Venezuelan broadcaster Omnivisión and HBO. The channel was initially available to cable and satellite providers across

Universal Pictures
later joined the partnership. Omnivisión eventually sold its share in the channel to Time Warner.

Asia

Southeast Asia

SingTel. Based in Singapore, it launched in 1993 and initially served only the Philippines and Thailand. HBO Asia expanded to incorporate feeds in Mandarin Chinese, Thai and Indonesian, encompassing 23 countries across Asia.[3]

Europe

Central and Eastern Europe

HBO Europe was originally launched in Hungary in 1991 on KábelKom, a company that was created in 1991 as a joint venture between HBO parent Time Warner and United Communications International to provide cable television service to Hungary. The channel's programming was originally transmitted via microwave relay (in the same manner as the flagship HBO channel in the United States from 1972 to 1975), due to the economic issues in using satellite delivery to a country with a small population. By late 1994, HBO Hungary had a subscriber base of 160,000 households. Since that point, HBO has expanded into 15 European markets including Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Romania, Bulgaria, Moldova, Croatia, Slovenia, Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro and North Macedonia.[3]

Former services

Asia

Nepal, India, Pakistan and the Maldives

HBO South Asia was a regional pay television network operated by Home Box Office Inc.'s HBO Asia unit, which aired theatrical feature films from America and South Asia. Singapore based HBO Channels are telecast in Nepal. The network ceased operations on 15 December 2020[6]

Europe

Netherlands

CanalDigitaal
.

On 28 September 2016, HBO Netherlands announced that it would cease broadcasting on 31 December 2016.[7]

Following the 31 December 2016 closure of HBO Netherlands, cable television provider Ziggo, as part of its acquisition of the broadcasting licenses to the network's content for the Dutch market, began offering HBO programs on its video on demand service Ziggo Movies & Series XL.[7] Ziggo's rights to HBO programming expired on 31 December 2021, in anticipation of the 2022 HBO Max launch in the Netherlands.

Nordic regions

On August 15, 2012, HBO announced plans to launch HBO Nordic, a multiplatform video distribution service serving Norway, Denmark, Sweden and Finland that was created through a joint venture with Parsifal International.[8][9] The video on demand service launched in December 2012.[10] HBO programming also airs in Iceland on Stöð (Channel 2).[11]

HBO Nordic announced that the service would be dissolved and was folded into HBO Max, launching on October 26, 2021. All HBO Nordic subscribers were automatically transferred to HBO Max and new subscribers between October 26 and November 30 would have 50% off for a lifetime as long as they do not cancel their subscription.[12][13] People with the old HBO Nordic application on their phones were prompted to install HBO Max instead.

Spain

HBO programs were previously broadcast in Spain on pay television service Canal+.[14]

In 2016, HBO launched a standalone streaming service called HBO España, which is the Spanish equivalent of HBO Now and HBO Nordic. It also has been replaced by HBO Max simultaneously with Nordics version of the service on 2021.

Portugal

From September 2015 to December 2018, local premium television channel

HBO Max
on 8 March 2022.

Program licensing partnerships

Europe

United Kingdom, Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Luxembourg, Italy and Ireland

Under a long-term agreement until 2024 between HBO and Sky Group (Comcast), Sky operates Sky Atlantic which broadcasts the majority of HBO's programming. Sky Atlantic is available in the UK, Austria, Switzerland, Germany, Luxembourg, Ireland and Italy.

In February 2011, Sky Atlantic launched on the Sky platforms in the United Kingdom and Ireland, which maintains a distribution deal with HBO to offer the majority of its programming on the channel. Under the five-year agreement between HBO and Sky, newer HBO programs will air on Sky Atlantic before airing on other television channels within the United Kingdom and Ireland.

Prior to 2011, TG4 in Ireland had a long-term agreement to broadcast HBO programming free-to-air, this ceased following the creation of Sky Atlantic.

In Italian-speaking Switzerland, HBO shows are broadcast on RSI La 1.

France

On November 13, 2008, Orange launched Orange Cinéma Séries (renamed OCS on 22 September 2012), a five channel package, dedicated to movie and series. The same year, Orange signed a long-term agreement to distribute all HBO productions in France. Originally, HBO programs were shared by OCS Max, OCS Novo, and OCS Choc but on October 10, 2013, OCS replaced OCS Novo with OCS City, to be the main channel for HBO productions in France. HBO productions were also available on OCS streaming service. In 2019, Orange and HBO extended their deal to give OCS the complete exclusivity on the HBO catalogue. Before that, HBO was able to make deals with other French channels for the rerun rights of their programs.

In December 2022, OCS's deal with HBO ended, and productions were removed from the service beginning in January 2023. The same month, Warner Bros. Discovery and

HBO Max programs owned by the company in October 2022. The channel will be launched in March 2023. Selected programs (like The Last of Us) will be given a release without a subscription to the channel.[17][18]

In

subtitles, and soon after on the website. It is only accessible from Switzerland.[19]

CIS

Since 2017, Amedia broadcast the majority of the HBO programming in most of the CIS territories, except in Russia, where broadcasting ceased in 2022 as a result of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.[20][21]

Greece and Cyprus

Nova has a long-term agreement with HBO to broadcast the majority of HBO programs in Greece and Cyprus. In 2015, Nova Cinema announced a new output deal with HBO to broadcast the biggest hit series in Greece and Cyprus at the same time with the US. The fifth season of Game of Thrones
premiered on 12 April 2015 on HBO and Nova Cinema at the same time.

Belgium and Luxembourg

On February 19, 2018, Belgian telecommunications company Proximus announced a deal to carry the BeTV bouquet for the distribution of HBO programs in French-speaking Belgium.[22] HBO shows airs on Be 1, nicknamed Home of HBO.

For Flanders,

Telenet and DPG Media
, broadcasts HBO shows.

Baltics

Since September 1, 2018, telecommunications provider Telia has added HBO streaming services to their networks in Estonia and Lithuania,[23][24][25] while Tet carries HBO programming in Latvia.[26]

Malta

Cable television network Melita More shows several HBO programs in Malta since 2011.

Asia

Malaysia

HBO Asia.[citation needed
] It is featuring local & international movie with Malay and English subtitles.

Middle East and North Africa

After signing a deal with HBO, on 1 February 2016

MENA
region.

As of 2019, most HBO programs are broadcast on OSN First Series' "HBO Night" block following a rebranding of OSN's channels.

Japan

In Japan, U-Next reached a deal to carry HBO and HBO Max original programs in Japan beginning in April 2021. This replaced a previous deal between HBO and Amazon Prime Video Japan.[29]

Africa

HBO signed an exclusive deal with the South African streaming service Showmax owned by MultiChoice Group. This deal includes exclusive streaming rights to every single HBO title and new episodes to be added the same day they air in the United States.[30]

The HBO shows are broadcast on Canal+ for the Francophone market.

Oceania

Australia

Disney–ABC International Television. HBO Originals are also available on demand via Foxtel services Foxtel Now and Binge
.

New Zealand

SoHo, and its subscription streaming service Neon
, in New Zealand.

International SVOD services

In 2005, the HBO Mobile wireless service launched via

Hotstar from 2016 to 2023, which rebranded to Disney+ Hotstar since early 2020 following Disney's acquisition of much of 21st Century Fox's assets, it later moved to Viacom18's JioCinema in 27 April 2023.[31][32] In Southeast Asia, South Asia (excluding India and Pakistan) and Korea, HBO Asia launched HBO Go starting from 2013 in Hong Kong and gradually expanded it to countries across the region in partnership with local telecom giants for those subscribing to HBO TV network through those partners, only to relaunch it as OTT subscription service since 2016. It is slated and expected to be replaced by the streaming service which encompass all WBD properties named Max (which would be a proposed merger between HBO Max and Discovery+) in fall 2024,[33][34] following the merger of parent company WarnerMedia with Discovery, Inc. to form and become Warner Bros. Discovery
.

Footnotes

  1. ^ By coincidence, Bell Canada was formerly part-owned by WarnerMedia's 2018–2022 parent company AT&T until 1975; however Bell's relationship with HBO predated AT&T's acquisition of WarnerMedia. Bell Media and its predecessors had also had a separate partnership with Discovery, Inc. covering Discovery Channel Canada and related services, dating back to 1995, prior to the merger that formed WBD.

References

  1. ^ "HBO: Home to Groundbreaking Series, Movies, Comedies & Documentaries". HBO. Archived from the original on 2010-02-01. Retrieved 2013-03-16.
  2. ^ "AT&T Inc. Annual Report on Form 10-K for Fiscal Year 2018". February 20, 2019. Archived from the original on April 6, 2019. Retrieved January 15, 2020. Home Box Office licenses its original programming to television networks and OTT services in over 150 countries, including arrangements under which it licenses programming to television networks that are branded as the "Home of HBO" in countries such as the U.K., Australia, France and Germany and as "HBO Canada" in Canada.
  3. ^ a b c d Mesce, Bill (November 18, 2013). "It's Not TV: HBO, The Company That Changed Television: Expanding The Brand (Part 2)". Sound on Sight. Archived from the original on February 3, 2014. Retrieved February 1, 2014.
  4. ^ The Canadian Press staff (2015-11-19). "Bell expanding TMN into national pay TV service; to be sole operator of HBO Canada". Winnipeg Free Press. Archived from the original on 2015-11-20. Retrieved 2015-11-19.
  5. ^ "Bell Media and HBO Sign Historic Agreement Bringing Canadians Unprecedented Access to HBO Programming". Bell Media. 2015-11-19. Archived from the original on 2016-03-05. Retrieved 2016-03-09.
  6. ^ Singh, Manish (2020-10-15). "WarnerMedia to discontinue HBO and WB TV channels in India, and select other South Asia markets". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2023-08-18.
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  8. ^ Flint, Joe Flint (2012-08-15). "HBO and 20th Century Fox renew output deal". Los Angeles Times. Archived from the original on 2022-02-17. Retrieved 2023-04-12.
  9. ^ "Netflix, HBO to battle for Nordic viewers". Reuters. 2012-08-12. Archived from the original on 2016-04-26.
  10. ^ "HBO Nordic Underwhelms Early Adopters". ArcticStartup. 2013-01-08. Archived from the original on 2015-05-11.
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  19. ^ "House of the Dragon". Radio Télévision Suisses (RTS). 22 August 2022. Archived from the original on 25 August 2022. Retrieved 26 August 2022.
  20. ^ "HBO, Russia's Amedia Strike Exclusive Deal". 25 July 2017. Archived from the original on 23 December 2017. Retrieved 28 June 2018.
  21. ^ "Amedia becomes 'home of HBO' in new deal". 25 July 2017. Archived from the original on 28 June 2018. Retrieved 28 June 2018.
  22. ^ "Proximus secures HBO shows with be TV deal". 19 February 2018. Archived from the original on 28 February 2023. Retrieved 21 January 2019.
  23. ^ "Telia brings HBO to the Baltics". Archived from the original on 2018-12-26. Retrieved 2018-12-25.
  24. ^ "Telekanali HBO programmivalik jõuab septembrist Eestisse". 9 August 2018. Archived from the original on 26 December 2018. Retrieved 25 December 2018.
  25. ^ "HBO serialai Lietuvoje - Telia". Archived from the original on 2020-08-13. Retrieved 2020-05-28.
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External links