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207-430: The company has achieved several pioneering innovations in the cable television industry, including its satellite uplink of HBO as the first television network in the world to transmit through that technology, and the development of original programming for pay television. HBO, Inc.'s origins trace to December 1, 1965, when Charles Dolan —who had already done pioneering work in the commercial use of cables —was granted

414-422: A codenamed concept for a cable-originated television channel that would be distributed via Sterling Manhattan and other participating cable systems. The proposed service would offer unedited theatrical movies licensed from the major Hollywood film studios and live sporting events, all presented without interruptions by advertising and sold for a flat monthly fee to prospective subscribers. Dolan wanted to offset

621-665: A franchise permit by the New York City Council to build a cable television system encompassing the Lower Manhattan section of New York City (traversing southward from 79th Street on the Upper East Side to 86th Street on the Upper West Side). Along with Dolan, TelePrompTer Corporation (which was assigned most of Upper Manhattan ) and CATV Enterprises Inc. (which was assigned part of

828-599: A short film or other interstitial content); by 1974, when the service began offering programming during the l concert specials and other music programs, daytime children's programs and various instructional series were added to the schedule. Originally headquartered from the Time-Life Building on Avenue of the Americas (Sixth Avenue) in Midtown Manhattan , HBO initially relayed its programming via

1035-402: A transponder on the then-under construction Satcom I , which was expected to be launched at the end of 1975, for a five-year term. Cable television equipment manufacturer Scientific Atlanta (through a client arrangement with Transcommunications Corp.) also intended to build earth-based satellite transmitting stations for setup outside of HBO's Manhattan headquarters and at the headend sites of

1242-436: A "major studio" until 1984, when it joined 20th Century Fox, Columbia, Metro–Goldwyn–Mayer, Paramount, Universal, and Warner Bros. to comprise the "Big Seven." The decay of MGM in 1986 lead the studio to become a mini-major upon its sale in 1986, reducing the majors to the "Big Six". In 1989, Sony acquired Columbia Pictures Entertainment, which became Sony Pictures Entertainment in 1991. In 2019, Disney acquired Fox , reducing

1449-446: A $ 3-million direct investment. Sterling also raised Time's equity in the company to 66.4% in exchange for the added HBO stake, through the purchase of additional stock and a converted $ 6.4-million note obligation. Dolan—who reportedly had major disagreements with Time-Life management on policy issues, claims which the company denied—subsequently resigned as chief executive officer of Sterling Communications and Home Box Office, accepting

1656-655: A $ 675,000 buyout of a portion of his stock while remaining on the board of directors at both companies in the interim; Dolan used portions of the sale's proceeds to repurchase Time's share of the Sterling Nassau systems and to start the Long Island Cable Community Development Co. (the forerunner to Cablevision Systems Corporation , that would be combined with the Sterling/Cablevision systems on Long Island) as

1863-470: A 1935 merger), Warner Bros., and RKO. The remaining majors were sometimes referred to as the "Little Three" or "major minor" studios. Two—Universal and Columbia (founded in 1924)—were organized similarly to the Big Five, except for the fact that they never owned more than small theater circuits (a consistently reliable source of profits). The third of the lesser majors, United Artists (founded in 1919), owned

2070-519: A 1967 merger with the Seven Arts company preceded a 1969 purchase by Kinney National , under Stephen J. Ross . MGM, in the process of a slow decline, changed ownership twice in the same span as well, winding up in the hands of financier Kirk Kerkorian also in 1969. The majors almost entirely abandoned low-budget production during this era, bringing the annual average of features released down to 160. The decade also saw Disney/Buena Vista commanding

2277-740: A Miniseries or Movie ( Vincent Gardenia ). In January 1996, HBO Showcase was superseded by HBO NYC Productions , a New York-based studio focusing primarily on HBO original movies as well as occasional drama series productions for the network. Time Warner consolidated HBO Pictures and HBO NYC Productions into a singular unit, HBO Films , in October 1999. Since then, the division has expanded into theatrical film productions distributed by sister company Warner Bros. Pictures and its subsidiaries, in addition to continuing to produce HBO's slate of original movies. In 1987, HBO entered into another limited partnership to create Cinema Plus L.P. The studios' most notable film

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2484-527: A Teleservice system in Allentown , but, per an agreement with Teleservice president John Walson , moved the launch system to the company's Wilkes-Barre system to avoid blackouts of NBA games (specifically those featuring the Philadelphia 76ers , with which HBO was unable to materialize a television agreement to accompany its planned broadcasts of New York Knicks games) that were scheduled to air on

2691-562: A case filed by HBO, Community Television of Utah and several viewer groups; a modified form of the statute was ruled as a violation of the First Amendment by the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals on September 10, 1985, and affirmed as unconstitutional by the U.S. Supreme Court on March 23, 1987, formally asserting that the subscriber-based model of cable television precluded programming content from being regulated in

2898-405: A collective 27-year tenure at HBO and twelve years as head of the network and its parent unit. Plepler reportedly "found he had less autonomy after the merger," as Stankey felt Plepler was "attached to a fading distribution model" by selling HBO programming with other linear channels and to channel platforms operated by streaming distributors also involved in content development; Plepler had developed

3105-518: A companion movie channel designed as a direct competitor to The Movie Channel (then owned by Warner-Amex Satellite Entertainment , part-owned by Warner Bros. Discovery predecessor Warner Communications) initially focused on movies chosen for their appeal to select audience demographics. Cinemax was designed to complement HBO (designated as a higher-tier "foundation [premium] service"), and avoid difficulties associated with bundling multiple "foundation" pay services. Cinemax launched over 56 cable systems in

3312-415: A deal to distribute on video two popular Hemdale Film Corporation titles from 1986, Hoosiers and Platoon . The company was subsequently sued by Vestron Video for allegedly breaching an existing contract that the firm had with Hemdale regarding those films; a judge eventually ordered HBO to recall all rental video cassettes of Hoosiers that had been on the market since September 1987. A settlement

3519-405: A dedicated analog circuit-switched service. Other advantages include better voice quality and integration to a Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) network providing cheap or unlimited nationwide and international calling. In many cases, digital cable telephone service is separate from cable modem service being offered by many cable companies and does not rely on Internet Protocol (IP) traffic or

3726-499: A definitive Reverse Morris Trust agreement, in which AT&T would spin out WarnerMedia into an independent company (unwinding the prior 2017 acquisition of the former Time Warner) that would concurrently acquire Discovery's assets, for $ 43 billion in cash, securities and stock plus WarnerMedia's retention of certain debt. Under the transaction, which was expected to be finalized by the second quarter of 2022, Home Box Office Inc. and all other assets of WarnerMedia would be combined with

3933-570: A discounted rate) tried to cater to cable subscribers reluctant to subscribe to HBO because of its cost and potentially objectionable content in some programs. Take 2, however, was hampered by a slow subscriber and carriage growth, forcing Time-Life to shut down the channel in January 1981. HBO executives then decided to develop a lower-cost "maxi-pay" service: on May 18, 1980, Home Box Office Inc. announced during that year's National Cable Television Association Convention its plans to launch Cinemax ,

4140-459: A distribution company for several independent producers, later began producing its own films, and was eventually acquired by MGM in 1981. Columbia Pictures eventually merged in 1987 with Tri-Star Pictures to form Columbia Pictures Entertainment, now known as Sony Pictures Entertainment Inc. During the Golden Age, Walt Disney Productions was an independent production company and not considered

4347-426: A few theaters and had access to production facilities owned by its principals, but it functioned primarily as a backer-distributor, loaning money to independent producers and releasing their films. During the 1930s, the eight majors averaged a total of 358 feature film releases a year; in the 1940s, the four largest companies shifted more of their resources toward high-budget productions and away from B movies , bringing

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4554-436: A given location, cable distribution lines must be available on the local utility poles or underground utility lines. Coaxial cable brings the signal to the customer's building through a service drop , an overhead or underground cable. If the subscriber's building does not have a cable service drop, the cable company will install one. The standard cable used in the U.S. is RG-6 , which has a 75 ohm impedance , and connects with

4761-543: A high elevation. At the outset, cable systems only served smaller communities without television stations of their own, and which could not easily receive signals from stations in cities because of distance or hilly terrain. In Canada, however, communities with their own signals were fertile cable markets, as viewers wanted to receive American signals. Rarely, as in the college town of Alfred, New York , U.S. cable systems retransmitted Canadian channels. Although early ( VHF ) television receivers could receive 12 channels (2–13),

4968-466: A higher rate. At the local headend, the feed signals from the individual television channels are received by dish antennas from communication satellites . Additional local channels, such as local broadcast television stations, educational channels from local colleges, and community access channels devoted to local governments ( PEG channels) are usually included on the cable service. Commercial advertisements for local business are also inserted in

5175-470: A joint appeal to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit , alleging the rules violated antitrust statues by inhibiting competition, exceeded FCC authority and violated cable programmers' First Amendment rights by regulating their access to content. (Network executives, National Association of Broadcasters officials and other broadcast industry representatives also were critical of

5382-534: A large enough market share to arguably qualify it as a seventh major. In 2006, DreamWorks was acquired by Viacom , Paramount's then-corporate parent (Viacom, after other mergers and acquisitions and rebrandings, included its movie studio's well-known name when the parent company rebranded as Paramount Global in 2022). In late 2008, DreamWorks once again became an independent production company; its films were distributed by Disney's Touchstone Pictures until 2016, at which point distribution switched to Universal. Today,

5589-444: A leading position thereafter. The two emerging contenders were both newly formed companies. In 1978, Krim, Benjamin, and three other studio executives departed UA to found Orion Pictures as a joint venture with Warner Bros. It was announced optimistically as the "first major new film company in 50 years". Tri-Star Pictures was created in 1982 as a joint venture of future corporate sibling Columbia Pictures (at that time acquired by

5796-405: A local VHF television station broadcast. Local broadcast channels were not usable for signals deemed to be a priority, but technology allowed low-priority signals to be placed on such channels by synchronizing their blanking intervals . TVs were unable to reconcile these blanking intervals and the slight changes due to travel through a medium, causing ghosting . The bandwidth of the amplifiers also

6003-484: A local station in any media market , not shown on broadcast television for at least three years or with 50 episodes or less to be available for pay syndication. However, cable programmers and the Motion Picture Association of America petitioned for the rules to be eliminated. The initial joint appeal and a separate objections by the U.S. Department of Justice and Metromedia were consolidated by

6210-671: A major corporate revamp that resulted in Home Box Office, Inc. and all other WarnerMedia Entertainment assets being consolidated with Warner Bros. Entertainment to form WarnerMedia Studios & Networks Group. HBO/Cinemax President of Programming Casey Bloys—who has been with Home Box Office, Inc. since 2004 (as director of development at HBO Independent Productions), and was eventually elevated to programming president in May 2016—added oversight of HBO Max and WarnerMedia's basic cable networks to his purview. (The restructuring also resulted in

6417-463: A microwave-based system, may be used instead. Coaxial cables are capable of bi-directional carriage of signals as well as the transmission of large amounts of data . Cable television signals use only a portion of the bandwidth available over coaxial lines. This leaves plenty of space available for other digital services such as cable internet , cable telephony and wireless services, using both unlicensed and licensed spectra. Broadband internet access

Home Box Office, Inc. - Misplaced Pages Continue

6624-507: A network of microwave relay towers throughout the Northeastern United States to participating cable systems carrying the channel; On February 28, 1973, Sterling Communications announced it would spin-out HBO and associated assets into Home Box Office, Inc., a new subsidiary created in accordance with the sale of 9% of Sterling's HBO equity to Time Inc. (expanding its controlling shares to around 75% of HBO's equity) and

6831-475: A partnership between Home Box Office, Inc. and Showtime Networks (parent of HBO rivals Showtime and The Movie Channel) implemented a cooperative content advisory system that was initially unveiled across HBO, Cinemax and the Showtime Networks properties that would provide specific content information for pay-cable subscribers to determine the suitability of a program for children. The development of

7038-485: A plan to drive $ 7.5 billion in annual revenue by seeking greater content investment for HBO and Cinemax (including incorporating "family-friendly original, library, and licensed children's programming" onto Cinemax's schedule), an agreement to sell its TV Everywhere service HBO Go directly to Comcast 's broadband-only customers, and to offer the HBO/Cinemax linear channel bundle for at a slightly higher price point than

7245-561: A profit, making them "prohibitively expensive" to operate independently. On December 18, 1989, Viacom and HBO reached an agreement to consolidate Ha! and The Comedy Channel into a single channel, CTV: The Comedy Network, which launched on April 1, 1991; its name was subsequently changed to Comedy Central on June 1 of that year, in order to limit confusion and potential trademark issues with the Canadian-based CTV Television Network . Time Warner/HBO exited

7452-461: A prominent position in the market. Buoyed by the success of Mary Poppins , Disney achieved a 9% market share in 1964, more than Warner and its eventual subsidiary Fox. Though over the next two decades Disney/Buena Vista's share of the box-office would continue to reach this level, the studio was still not considered a major as it did not release many films, and those it did release were exclusively G-rated. The early 1970s were difficult years for all

7659-564: A rarity, found in an ever-dwindling number of markets. Analog television sets are accommodated, their tuners mostly obsolete and dependent entirely on the set-top box. Cable television is mostly available in North America , Europe , Australia , Asia and South America . Cable television has had little success in Africa , as it is not cost-effective to lay cables in sparsely populated areas. Multichannel multipoint distribution service ,

7866-455: A receiver box. The cable company will provide set-top boxes based on the level of service a customer purchases, from basic set-top boxes with a standard-definition picture connected through the standard coaxial connection on the TV, to high-definition wireless digital video recorder (DVR) receivers connected via HDMI or component . Older analog television sets are cable ready and can receive

8073-523: A second powerful Hollywood studio was established when Adolph Zukor merged his Famous Players Film Company movie production house with the Jesse L. Lasky Company to form Famous Players–Lasky . The combined studio acquired Paramount Pictures as a distribution arm and eventually adopted its name. That same year, William Fox relocated his Fox Film Corporation from Fort Lee, New Jersey to Hollywood and began expanding. In 1923, Walt Disney had founded

8280-766: A series of signal amplifiers and line extenders. These devices carry the signal to customers via passive RF devices called taps. The very first cable networks were operated locally, notably in 1936 by Rediffusion in London in the United Kingdom and the same year in Berlin in Germany, notably for the Olympic Games , and from 1948 onwards in the United States and Switzerland. This type of local cable network

8487-413: A singular premium bundle with HBO, available at a discount if electing to subscribe to both channels. As Cinemax evolved, it expanded into non-film programming content, including music specials, some limited original and acquired programming (such as SCTV Channel and Max Headroom ) and, most notably, late-night softcore pornographic films and series ; the adult programming—initially offered as part of

Home Box Office, Inc. - Misplaced Pages Continue

8694-408: A small scale in 1981, it was eventually spun off and now operates as a minor independent company.) In contrast, there was United Artists, which had long operated under the financing-distribution model the other majors were now progressively shifting toward. Under Arthur Krim and Robert Benjamin , who began managing the company in 1951, UA became consistently profitable. By 1956—when it released one of

8901-470: A special Academy Award for Technical Achievement . Fox, in the forefront of sound film technology along with Warner Bros., was also acquiring a sizable circuit of movie theaters to exhibit its product. The development of sound films like The Jazz Singer near the end of the Roaring Twenties resulted in a massive rush of Americans to movie theaters to watch the astonishing new "talkies". At

9108-417: A special telephone interface at the customer's premises that converts the analog signals from the customer's in-home wiring into a digital signal, which is then sent on the local loop (replacing the analog last mile , or plain old telephone service (POTS) to the company's switching center, where it is connected to the public switched telephone network ( PSTN ). The biggest obstacle to cable telephone service

9315-623: A substantial number of films annually and consistently command a significant share of box office revenue in a given market. In the American and international markets, the major film studios, often known simply as the majors or the Big Five studios , are commonly regarded as the five diversified media conglomerates whose various film production and distribution subsidiaries collectively command approximately 80 to 85% of U.S. box office revenue. The term may also be applied more specifically to

9522-488: A then-emerging slate of original action series, and was removed entirely from Home Box Office's linear and on-demand platforms in 2018. The 1980s also saw HBO join three separate lawsuits concerning municipal and state-level statutes that would have legally prohibited cable systems from transmitting "indecent" content—specifically, programs that featured descriptions of or depicted "illicit" sexual acts and/or nudity—which Home Box Office Inc. and cable systems that challenged

9729-605: A type F connector . The cable company's portion of the wiring usually ends at a distribution box on the building exterior, and built-in cable wiring in the walls usually distributes the signal to jacks in different rooms to which televisions are connected. Multiple cables to different rooms are split off the incoming cable with a small device called a splitter . There are two standards for cable television; older analog cable, and newer digital cable which can carry data signals used by digital television receivers such as high-definition television (HDTV) equipment. All cable companies in

9936-524: A unit of Warner Bros. that oversees such networks as Cartoon Network and Turner Classic Movies .) On May 8, 2019, as part of a broader reorganization that also brought HBO Enterprises and programming distribution for Turner Entertainment under the division, HBO parent WarnerMedia announced that HBO Home Entertainment would be transferred from Home Box Office, Inc./WarnerMedia Entertainment to Warner Bros. Worldwide Home Entertainment and Games . On August 7, 2020, WarnerMedia restructured several of its units in

10143-701: A wholly owned subsidiary of AT&T, which renamed the unit WarnerMedia . The U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington unanimously upheld the lower court's ruling in favor of AT&T on February 26, 2019. In August 2017, as part of their co-production deal with the studio, HBO and Sky acquired minority equity interests in British television production company Bad Wolf (producer of the HBO miniseries The Night Of ). On February 28, 2019, Richard Plepler stepped down from his position as CEO of Home Box Office, Inc., after

10350-439: A worldwide theatrical distribution company for high-quality independent films . The company, along with sister studio Warner Independent Pictures , was shut down in May 2008 as part of the consolidation of New Line with its sister unit Warner Bros. Entertainment. (Picturehouse CEO Bob Berney would later resurrect the studio as an independent entity in 2013, after purchasing the trademark rights from Time Warner.) On March 1, 1994,

10557-753: Is "nearly impossible" for a film to reach a broad international theatrical audience without being first picked up by one of the majors for distribution. Today, all the Big Five major studios are also members of the Motion Picture Association (MPA) and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP). Summary of the 2023 North American market share of each studio. The current "Big Five" majors (Universal, Paramount, Warner Bros., Disney, and Sony) all originate from film studios that were active during Hollywood's "Golden Age." Four of these were among that original era's " Eight Majors ," being that era's original "Big Five" plus its "Little Three," collectively

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10764-422: Is achieved over coaxial cable by using cable modems to convert the network data into a type of digital signal that can be transferred over coaxial cable. One problem with some cable systems is the older amplifiers placed along the cable routes are unidirectional thus in order to allow for uploading of data the customer would need to use an analog telephone modem to provide for the upstream connection. This limited

10971-446: Is similar to HBO Go , a TV Everywhere streaming platform that launched on February 18, 2010, and is marketed exclusively to existing HBO linear subscribers through a television provider. Under WarnerMedia stewardship, on October 10, 2018, the company announced plans for a new OTT platform combining programming from HBO with content from various other WarnerMedia properties, including Warner Bros. Pictures , Warner Bros. Television , and

11178-482: Is the need for nearly 100% reliable service for emergency calls. One of the standards available for digital cable telephony, PacketCable , seems to be the most promising and able to work with the quality of service (QOS) demands of traditional analog plain old telephone service (POTS) service. The biggest advantage to digital cable telephone service is similar to the advantage of digital cable, namely that data can be compressed, resulting in much less bandwidth used than

11385-606: Is used in the US for cable television and originally stood for community antenna television , from cable television's origins in 1948; in areas where over-the-air TV reception was limited by distance from transmitters or mountainous terrain, large community antennas were constructed, and cable was run from them to individual homes. In 1968, 6.4% of Americans had cable television. The number increased to 7.5% in 1978. By 1988, 52.8% of all households were using cable. The number further increased to 62.4% in 1994. To receive cable television at

11592-526: The Coca-Cola Company ), HBO (then owned by Warner Bros. Discovery's predecessor Time Inc. ), and CBS . In 1985, Rupert Murdoch 's News Corporation acquired 20th Century-Fox (thus dropping that name's hyphen), the last of both the classic Hollywood majors to be taken over by an outside corporation and five relatively healthy Golden Age majors to remain independent throughout that era and after until its eventual sale to Disney in 2019 brought back

11799-492: The DVB-C , DVB-C2 stream to IP for distribution of TV over IP network in the home. Many cable companies offer internet access through DOCSIS . In the most common system, multiple television channels (as many as 500, although this varies depending on the provider's available channel capacity) are distributed to subscriber residences through a coaxial cable , which comes from a trunkline supported on utility poles originating at

12006-725: The Eastern and Central Time Zones on August 1, 1980. (A West Coast feed for the Pacific and Mountain Time Zones launched on September 1.) Compared to Take 2, Cinemax experienced far greater success because it relied on classic feature films from the 1930s to the 1970s, mixed with some more recent films, incidentally benefiting from the limited headend channel capacity offered by cable systems and customer demand for uncut broadcasts of theatrical movies. HBO traditionally marketed Cinemax to cable operators for sale to subscribers as part of

12213-597: The Fairness Doctrine ). The court applied the O'Brien test (determining the FCC had failed two of its four "prongs" or standards) and found that the degree of limitation of free speech imposed by the FCC was inadequate, "grossly overboard" and thereby "arbitrary, capricious and unconstitutional" to the rights of pay-cable telecasters. The decision gave free rein for Home Box Office and other pay cable services to acquire movie and sports rights without restriction, opening

12420-535: The New York metropolitan area . Through Dolan's Sterling Information Services subsidiary, Manhattan Cable TV Services began limited cable service in September 1966. Manhattan Cable (renamed Sterling Manhattan Cable Television in January 1971) was the first urban underground cable television system to operate in the United States. Rather than string up cable on telephone poles or use microwave antennas to receive

12627-476: The Northeastern United States in March 1888 had caused widespread damage to above-ground utility lines in the area—requiring all electrical and telecommunication wiring to be laid underground to limit weather-related service disruptions, and because the multitude of tall buildings on Manhattan Island subjected television signals to reception impairments. Dolan curried the financial backing of Time-Life, Inc. (then

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12834-544: The Turner Broadcasting System cable networks—including TBS Superstation , CNN , CNN Headline News , CNN International , TNT , Cartoon Network and Turner Classic Movies —and until the promotion's folding in 2001, World Championship Wrestling [WCW] pay-per-view events), into a singular retail unit under Home Box Office Inc. On October 15, 2014, Home Box Office, Inc. announced it would launch an over-the-top (OTT) subscription streaming service in

13041-564: The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit on April 10, 1985. On September 27, 1984, Home Box Office Inc. announced it would acquire a 15% equity share in Black Entertainment Television (BET) , which would be accumulated under a "contribution" arrangement in which BET will stop paying a monthly lease to the transponder that HBO had then leased to BET until the accumulated lease amount matches what

13248-650: The first Warner Bros. Studio on Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood. On April 4, 1923, the Warner Bros. incorporated their fledgling movie company as " Warner Bros. Pictures, Inc. ". Though their first film was My Four Years in Germany , Warner Bros. released their full-fledged movie The Jazz Singer in 1927. Warner Bros. were the pioneers of the sound film era as they established Vitaphone . Because of The Jazz Singer' s success (along with Lights of New York , The Singing Fool and The Terror ), Warner Bros.

13455-616: The high band 7–13 of North American television frequencies . Some operators as in Cornwall, Ontario , used a dual distribution network with Channels 2–13 on each of the two cables. During the 1980s, United States regulations not unlike public, educational, and government access (PEG) created the beginning of cable-originated live television programming. As cable penetration increased, numerous cable-only TV stations were launched, many with their own news bureaus that could provide more immediate and more localized content than that provided by

13662-464: The runaway production phenomenon means that most films are now mostly or completely shot on location at places outside Los Angeles. The Big Five major studios are also members of the Motion Picture Association (MPA) and the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP). Secondary studio New Line Cinema June 18, 1967 20th Century Studios May 31, 1935 TriStar Pictures March 2, 1982 Other major film studios of

13869-416: The "Friday After Dark" block , eventually expanding to all seven nights by the start of the 1990s—became a key draw for Cinemax subscribers, and the main association with the channel in pop culture . Pornographic adult programming on began to be de-emphasized from the linear Cinemax and HBO Zone channels' late-night programming in 2011, as part of the former's refocusing toward its mainstream feature films and

14076-422: The "Sterling Cable Network", before Dolan and his development team settled on naming it " H ome B ox O ffice ", originally intended as a placeholder name to meet publishing deadlines for the service's announcement memorandum and research brochures—launched on November 8, 1972, over Teleservice Cable (now Service Electric )'s Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania , system. Time Life originally planned for HBO to debut on

14283-429: The 1980s. In 1982, HBO entered into a joint venture with Columbia Pictures and CBS Theatrical Films to form Tri-Star Pictures (the hyphen in the name was removed in 1991); the new studio was created as a means for the three entities to pool resources to split the ever-growing costs of making feature films. The studio's first production, Robert Redford -led The Natural , was released in 1984. Tri-Star entered into

14490-429: The 20th century included: "Instant major" is a 1960s coined term for a film company that seemingly overnight had approached the status of major." In 1967, three "instant major" studios popped up, two of which were partnered with a television network theatrical film unit, with the most lasting until 1973: Mini-major studios (or "mini-majors") are the larger, independent film production companies that are smaller than

14697-517: The 260,000 convertible notes it held in Warner's cable television unit, Warner Cable Communications, into common stock shares totaling up to 20% in interest. Sterling would then maintain oversight of Home Box Office under Warner's purview. The Time-Warner cable deal was terminated on June 27, after both companies failed to reach a definitive agreement to sell HBO and the other Sterling subsidiaries to Warner; financial arrangements made between Sterling and

14904-441: The Big Five for the first time since then. By 1986, the combined share of the six classic majors — Paramount, MGM/UA, Fox, Warner Bros., Columbia and Universal — fell to 64%, the lowest since the beginning of the Golden Age. Fox's future parent company Disney was in third place, behind only Paramount and Warner. Even including Disney/Buena Vista as a seventh major and adding its 10% share (only for them to acquire Fox 33 years later),

15111-432: The Big Five major studios are primarily financial backers and distributors of films whose actual production is largely handled by independent companies – either long-running entities or ones created for and dedicated to the making of a specific film. For example, Disney and Sony Pictures distribute their films through affiliated divisions ( Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures and Sony Pictures Releasing , respectively), while

15318-454: The Big Five majors – Universal Pictures , Paramount Pictures , Warner Bros. , Walt Disney Studios , and Sony Pictures – routinely distribute hundreds of films every year into all significant international markets (that is, where discretionary income is high enough for consumers to afford to watch films). The majors enjoy "significant internal economies of scale " from their "extensive and efficient [distribution] infrastructure," while it

15525-681: The Big Five still based in Hollywood and located entirely within the official city limits of the City of Los Angeles. Warner Bros. and Disney are both located in Burbank , while Universal is in the nearby unincorporated area of Universal City , and Sony is in Culver City . Disney is the only studio that has been owned by the same conglomerate since its founding. The offices of that parent entity are still located on Disney's studio lot and in

15732-486: The Big Five, there are several smaller U.S. production and distribution companies, known as independents or "indies." The leading independent producers and distributors such as Lionsgate Studios , the aforementioned Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (now owned by Amazon ), A24 , and STX Entertainment , are sometimes referred to as "mini-majors." From 1998 through 2005, during a portion of the Big Six period, DreamWorks SKG commanded

15939-455: The Court of Appeals into Home Box Office v. Federal Communications Commission . On June 24, 1976, Home Box Office Inc. reached an in-principle agreement to purchase Telemation Program Services, a supplier of programming from individual program distributors to pay-cable systems. HBO sought Telemation to extend the channel's distribution to the 180,000 subscribers (across 40 cable systems) to which

16146-710: The Disney Brothers Cartoon Studio and The Disney Brothers Features Company with his brother Roy and animator Ub Iwerks . Renamed as Walt Disney Productions , Disney became a powerful independent over the next three decades focusing on animation with its shorts and films being distributed over the years by various majors; primarily Leslie B. Mace, Winkler Pictures, Universal Pictures, Celebrity Productions, Cinephone, Columbia Pictures, United Artists, United Artists Pictures and finally RKO. In its first year in 1928, Celebrity Productions and Cinephone had released its first blockbuster Steamboat Willie . In

16353-517: The District of Columbia Appeals Court's overturning of the pay-cable rules. As the HBO television service was growing nationally, Time-Life tried to develop companion pay services to sell to prospective subscribers, including existing HBO customers. Home Box Office's first attempt at a secondary service was Take 2, a movie channel marketed at a family audience that launched in April 1979. The "mini-pay" service (a smaller-scale pay television channel sold at

16560-515: The FCC gave preemptive authorization to Time-Life and Sterling Manhattan Cable to begin a pay television operation. On November 2, 1971, Time Inc.'s board of directors approved the "Green Channel" proposal, agreeing to give Dolan a $ 150,000 development grant for the project. The namesake Home Box Office (HBO) pay television network was founded by Dolan—as a joint venture between Sterling Communications and its co-partner, Time Life Broadcasting Inc. —in 1972. The service—originally to have been called

16767-530: The FCC that it planned to operate a cable-originated pay television service. Because Sterling's New York City Council franchise grant specifically required FCC approval for that purpose, Time/Sterling filed an FCC request to authorize pay television operations. Sterling indicated that a subscription television operation would also help Sterling Manhattan fund its fledgling local origination channel , which had incurred $ 1 million in start-up debt on top of annual company operating losses of $ 250,000. On September 10, 1971,

16974-546: The Internet. Traditional cable television providers and traditional telecommunication companies increasingly compete in providing voice, video and data services to residences. The combination of television, telephone and Internet access is commonly called triple play , regardless of whether CATV or telcos offer it. More than 400,000 television service subscribers. Major film studio Major film studios are production and distribution companies that release

17181-477: The New York City Council as part of their 20-year noncompete franchise agreement were alleged to have curtailed the sale. On July 19, 1973, Time Inc. reached an agreement to purchase and assume financial liabilities of Sterling Communications for $ 6.2 million (including $ 3.1‐million in redeemed public debentures). Time completed its acquisition of Sterling on September 18, 1973, formally dissolving

17388-705: The New York–based Trust was arguably the first major North American movie conglomerate. The independents' fight against the Trust was led by Carl Laemmle , whose Chicago-based Laemmle Film Service, serving the Midwest and Canada, was the largest distribution exchange in North America. Laemmle's efforts were rewarded in 1912 when the U.S. government ruled that the Trust was a "corrupt and unlawful association" and must be dissolved. On June 8, 1912, Laemmle organized

17595-738: The Sterling holding company and transferring Home Box Office and Sterling Manhattan Cable to its Time-Life division. The "Sterling" name was subsequently removed from the Manhattan and Long Island systems, with the Manhattan unit being renamed "Manhattan Cable Television". (Time's purchase of Sterling was the subject of a $ 97-million class action lawsuit filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York on November 28, 1973, by 15 former Sterling stockholders who accused Time and its corporate board of "conspiracy" to depress

17802-589: The United States dating to 1951 (among them, Phonevision in New York City, Chicago and Hartford ; SubscriberVision in New York City; Telemeter in Palm Springs, California ; and Telemovies in Bartlesville, Oklahoma ) with little to no success, muzzled by campaigns backed by movie theater chains and commercial broadcasters to assuage television viewers to the supposed threat of pay television to

18009-485: The United States have switched to or are in the course of switching to digital cable television since it was first introduced in the late 1990s. Most cable companies require a set-top box ( cable converter box ) or a slot on one's TV set for conditional access module cards to view their cable channels, even on newer televisions with digital cable QAM tuners, because most digital cable channels are now encrypted, or scrambled , to reduce cable service theft . A cable from

18216-406: The United States in 2015, which would be marketed directly to cord cutters (consumers who primarily use streaming video services rather than watch television via a cable or satellite subscription) and competing with services such as Netflix . HBO Now formally launched on April 7, 2015, initially retailing only to Apple TV and iOS devices under a three-month exclusivity agreement. The service

18423-551: The United States. Levin reached an agreement to distribute the HBO satellite feed on eight UA-Columbia Cablevision systems in California , Texas , Florida , Arizona , Arkansas and Washington State , and build earth station receivers to intercept and relay the signal to the UA-Columbia systems' headends. HBO also signed a $ 7.5-million agreement (including $ 6.5 million allocated by Levin) with RCA Americom to lease

18630-483: The Universe and Surrender , were bought back by Cannon, which then re-licensed them to Warner Home Video , as part of a $ 75 million agreement it made using loans funded by financer Alan Bond . HBO acquired Cannon's interest in the venture in April 1987, amid financial losses incurred by the film studio after an unsuccessful attempt at releasing a series of larger budget films that floundered in box office revenue;

18837-719: The WarnerMedia Entertainment- and Warner Bros. Entertainment-operated basic cable networks previously owned by the Turner Broadcasting System. The service—announced as HBO Max on July 9, 2019, and operating under WarnerMedia Direct, making it one of two HBO-branded properties (alongside HBO Home Entertainment) not to operate under the Home Box Office, Inc. umbrella—was developed under a separate infrastructure from HBO Go and HBO Now, and existing subscribers were offered to transfer subscriptions to HBO Max following its May 27, 2020 launch. Although

19044-559: The aforementioned Universal under Lew Wasserman in 1962, the later half of the 1960s were marked by four others — Paramount, United Artists, Warner Bros., and MGM — involved in a spate of corporate takeovers that left Columbia, Fox, and its eventual parent company Disney under original ownership. Gulf+Western took over Paramount in 1966; and the Transamerica Corporation purchased United Artists in 1967. Warner Bros. underwent large-scale reorganization twice in two years:

19251-453: The assets of Discovery, Inc. (such as Discovery Channel , Animal Planet , Discovery+ , All3Media , Eurosport , GolfTV , Golf Digest , Golf World , Really , Motor Trend Group , Food Network , Discovery Family , HGTV , Asian Food Network , Travel Channel , TVN Group , Frisbee , K2 , Discovery New Zealand , Tele 5 , TLC and many more). AT&T shareholders would own 71% of the company's stock and Discovery shareholders would own

19458-404: The basic selection. By subscribing to additional tiers, customers could get specialty channels, movie channels, and foreign channels. Large cable companies used addressable descramblers to limit access to premium channels for customers not subscribing to higher tiers, however the above magazines often published workarounds for that technology as well. During the 1990s, the pressure to accommodate

19665-459: The biggest blockbusters of the decade, Around the World in 80 Days —it commanded a 10% market share. By the middle of the next decade, it had reached 16% and was the second-most profitable studio in Hollywood. Despite RKO's collapse, the remaining seven majors still averaged a total yearly release slate of 253 feature films during the decade. Following MCA Inc. 's acquisition of Decca Records and

19872-701: The book publishing unit of Time Inc. ), resulting in Manhattan Cable becoming one of its first cable system properties. Despite the investments from Time-Life's share of Sterling (initially 20% at the beginning of operations), Sterling Manhattan consistently lost money throughout its first six years of operation; the company incurred much of its debt from underground wiring expenses (costing as much as $ 300,000 per mile), and its difficulties attracting new subscribers to generate income (Manhattan Cable managed to receive only around 400 customers by 1967). On August 27, 1969, Sterling Communications consolidated ownership of

20079-666: The cable assets: it acquired Time-Life's 49% share in Sterling Manhattan, in exchange for stock and other assets worth $ 1.84 million. (Time-Life's interest in Sterling Communications concurrently increased from 25% to 44.5%.) Dolan was looking for a way to help his struggling cable company grow to become financially viable. In the summer of 1971, during a family vacation to France aboard the Queen Elizabeth 2 , Dolan conceived "The Green Channel",

20286-563: The cable box itself, these midband channels were used for early incarnations of pay TV , e.g. The Z Channel (Los Angeles) and HBO but transmitted in the clear i.e. not scrambled as standard TV sets of the period could not pick up the signal nor could the average consumer de-tune the normal stations to be able to receive it. Once tuners that could receive select mid-band and super-band channels began to be incorporated into standard television sets, broadcasters were forced to either install scrambling circuitry or move these signals further out of

20493-429: The cable company's local distribution facility, called the headend . Many channels can be transmitted through one coaxial cable by a technique called frequency division multiplexing . At the headend, each television channel is translated to a different frequency . By giving each channel a different frequency slot on the cable, the separate television signals do not interfere with each other. At an outdoor cable box on

20700-568: The cable television industry. In May 1976, Gerald Levin was promoted to chairman and CEO of Home Box Office Inc., succeeded as company president by Manhattan Cable president Nicholas "N.J." Nicholas Jr. The ability of Home Box Office and other pay television services to offer a wide array of content was challenged on March 20, 1975, when the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) updated its pay-cable regulations to modify anti-siphoning regulations that further limited

20907-515: The cable to send data from the customer box to the cable headend, for advanced features such as requesting pay-per-view shows or movies, cable internet access , and cable telephone service . The downstream channels occupy a band of frequencies from approximately 50 MHz to 1 GHz, while the upstream channels occupy frequencies of 5 to 42 MHz. Subscribers pay with a monthly fee. Subscribers can choose from several levels of service, with premium packages including more channels but costing

21114-675: The case of no local CBS or ABC station being available – rebroadcast the programming from a nearby affiliate but fill in with its own news and other community programming to suit its own locale. Many live local programs with local interests were subsequently created all over the United States in most major television markets in the early 1980s. This evolved into today's many cable-only broadcasts of diverse programming, including cable-only produced television movies and miniseries . Cable specialty channels , starting with channels oriented to show movies and large sporting or performance events, diversified further, and narrowcasting became common. By

21321-425: The channel's program scheduling repetitive, because of the limited allotment of movies outside of special events, decided to cancel their service. On April 11, 1975, Levin and Time-Life unveiled plans to distribute the HBO signal via satellite under a transponder leasing agreement with RCA Americom Communications , intending to distribute its programming to cable systems and multipoint distribution services throughout

21528-508: The chosen channel into the TV set on Channel 2, 3 or 4. Initially, UHF broadcast stations were at a disadvantage because the standard TV sets in use at the time were unable to receive their channels. With the passage of the All-Channel Receiver Act in 1964, all new television sets were required to include a UHF tuner, nonetheless, it would still take a few years for UHF stations to become competitive. Before being added to

21735-606: The city's Upper West Side , extending north of the Harlem River , and The Bronx 's Riverdale neighborhood) were also awarded cable franchise permits on that date. Dolan's maiden television venture was Teleguide, a closed-circuit television system started by his initial company, Sterling Movies U.S.A., in June 1962; it distributed a schedule of tourist information , news, interview segments and feature interstitials to hotels, and by 1964, apartment buildings and office buildings in

21942-401: The classic majors. Movie attendance, which had been declining steadily since the end of the Golden Age, hit an all-time low by 1971. In 1973, MGM president James T. Aubrey drastically downsized the studio, slashing its production schedule and eliminating its distribution arm (UA would distribute the studio's films for the remainder of the decade). From fifteen releases in 1973, the next year MGM

22149-592: The client cable systems that reached agreements to receive the signal ahead of the satellite launch. HBO began continuously transmitting via satellite on September 30, 1975, for the broadcast of the " Thrilla in Manila " heavyweight championship boxing match between Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier from the Araneta Coliseum in Cubao , Philippines . The broadcast that marked the television industry innovation

22356-796: The closure, as it prevented Festival from expanding its distribution. On January 2, 1989, Selecciones en Español 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 audio simulcasts via FM radio , launched. The service originally offered Spanish audio simulcasts of recent feature film releases from HBO and Cinemax's movie suppliers, and by Spring, added audio simulcasts of HBO's live boxing matches (except for certain events broadcast exclusively in Spanish on networks such as Galavisión ). Selecciones

22563-557: The club of major studios and two significant contenders emerged. With the combined output of Walt Disney Pictures , the establishment of the Touchstone Pictures brand in 1984, and increasing attention to the adult live-action market during the early 1980s, Disney/Buena Vista secured acknowledgment as a full-fledged major. Film historian Joel Finler identifies 1986 as the breakthrough year, when Disney rose to third place in market share and remained consistently competitive for

22770-454: The combined company's entertainment-formatted U.S. basic linear networks, including those that previously reported to Bloys under WarnerMedia.) Cable television Cable television is a system of delivering television programming to consumers via radio frequency (RF) signals transmitted through coaxial cables , or in more recent systems, light pulses through fibre-optic cables . This contrasts with broadcast television , in which

22977-421: The companies outside of the then-seven majors and Disney had combined for a grand total of 1%. In the first edition of Finler's The Hollywood Story (1988), he wrote, "It will be interesting to see whether the old-established studios will be able to bounce back in the future, as they have done so many times before, or whether the newest developments really do reflect a fundamental change in the US movie industry for

23184-420: The company provided content distribution; theoretically, this would allow Telemation to accommodate a custom feed of HBO to a system owner that declined to offer the service (such as for objections to carry R-rated movies). (Telemation later merged with a separate program marketing unit formed in April 1979, HBO Program Services, in 1980.) On March 29, 1977, the District of Columbia Appeals Court ruled in favor of

23391-411: The company's lone conventional broadcasting property, after Time sold its other broadcast television properties as it began expanding into cable system ownership). On May 9, 1973, reportedly because of high start-up and operating costs for HBO and other Sterling cable assets, Time announced it would sell its controlling share of Sterling to Warner Communications for $ 20 million. Time intended to convert

23598-544: The courts for years for control of fundamental motion picture patents, won a major decision. This led to the creation of the Motion Picture Patents Company , widely known as the Trust. Comprising the eight largest U.S. film companies, it was "designed to eliminate not only independent film producers but also the country's 10,000 independent [distribution] exchanges and exhibitors." Though its many members did not consolidate their filmmaking operations,

23805-571: The decades that followed, Disney and its associated distributors were able to achieve occasional successes, but its relatively small output and exclusive focus on G-rated films meant that it was not generally considered to be one of the majors. The Motion Picture Theatre Owners of America and the Independent Producers' Association declared war in 1925 on what they termed a common enemy — the "film trust" of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer , Paramount, and First National , which they claimed dominated

24012-606: The discretion of the participating service. A revised system—centered around ten content codes of two to three letters in length—was implemented across HBO and the other participating pay services on June 10, 1994. On January 7, 1998, Time Warner announced it would immediately consolidate its C-band retail businesses, HBO Direct (a retail arm of HBO's direct-to-home operations that sold HBO, Cinemax and their respective multiplex packages as well as ancillary programming services) and Turner Home Satellite (THS) (which handled C-band, direct-broadcast satellite and hospitality distribution of

24219-425: The door for services like HBO to engage in library content agreements for older films and, more broadly, the ability of cable-originated services to acquire a broad spectrum of sporting events (albeit with league-determined protections to ensure events are distributed on both broadcast and cable networks). A subsequent appeal decision by the U.S. Supreme Court on October 3, 1977, affirmed the ruling by refusing to review

24426-470: The early 1980s, HBO had an agreement with Vestron Video to distribute some of HBO's made-for-cable films and specials (such as The Terry Fox Story ); Vestron had been created by former HBO executive Austin Furst, who had been assigned to dismantle the assets of Time-Life Films. On February 21, 1984, as the broader entertainment industry began to drop their objections to and begin releasing their films through

24633-500: The eight film studios that controlled as much as 96% of the market during the 1930s and 1940s. In addition to being members of today's "Big Five," Paramount Pictures and Warner Bros. were also part of the original "Big Five," along with RKO Pictures , Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer , and 20th Century Fox . Universal Pictures was, during that early era, considered one of the "Little Three," along with United Artists and Columbia Pictures . RKO went defunct in 1959. United Artists began as

24840-619: The eight majors' box-office domination, it somewhat leveled the playing field between the Big Five and the Little Three. In November 1951, Decca Records purchased 28% of Universal; early the following year, the studio became the first of the classic Hollywood majors to be taken over by an outside corporation, as Decca acquired majority ownership. In 1953, Disney established its own distribution division, Buena Vista Film Distribution , to handle its own product which had been largely distributed by RKO. The 1950s also saw two substantial shifts in

25047-472: The end of 1949, when Paramount divested its theater chain—roughly the period considered Hollywood's Golden Age—there were eight Hollywood studios commonly regarded as the "majors". Of these eight, the so-called Big Five were integrated conglomerates, combining ownership of a production studio, distribution division, and substantial theater chain, and contracting with performers and filmmaking personnel: Loews/MGM, Paramount, Fox (which became 20th Century-Fox after

25254-415: The fact that the descrambling circuitry was for a time present in these tuners, depriving the cable operator of much of their revenue, such cable-ready tuners are rarely used now – requiring a return to the set-top boxes used from the 1970s onward. The digital television transition in the United States has put all signals, broadcast and cable, into digital form, rendering analog cable television service

25461-530: The first times since the 20s." With the exception of MGM/UA—whose position was effectively supplanted by Disney—the old-established studios did bounce back. The aforementioned purchase of 20th Century Fox by Rupert Murdoch 's News Corporation left its future parent company Disney under original ownership and presaged a new round of corporate acquisitions not long afterward. As part of that series, Columbia, Paramount and Warner Bros. received new owners once and for all while Universal changed corporate hands until

25668-792: The flagship HBO channel in 1988, with the formation of HBO Downtown Productions. In addition to handling the production of comedy specials for HBO, the channel produced program content for Comedy Central (such as Politically Incorrect with Bill Maher and Dr. Katz, Professional Therapist ). A secondary television production unit, HBO Independent Productions (HIP), was formed in October 1990. The Los Angeles-based production company specialized in television series and specials for broadcast, cable and syndicated television as well as lower-budget theatrical films. Throughout its 16-year existence, HIP primarily produced sitcoms for broadcast television and basic cable networks (including Martin , Roc , The Ben Stiller Show and Everybody Loves Raymond ). During

25875-731: The fortunes of HBO: at the time Time-Life, Inc. bought the remaining interest of the channel in September 1973, HBO's subscribership amassed only 8,000 customers across 14 Pennsylvania cable systems and was hampered by significant churn rate as some subscribers cancelled their service because of the repetitive scheduling of programming. By 1980, HBO was carried on cable and MMDS providers in all 50 U.S. states, with more than three million subscribers nationwide. Other cable channels followed HBO's footsteps in satellite distribution; in December 1976, Atlanta independent station WTCG-TV —now WBD-owned basic cable service TBS , and owned by Ted Turner at

26082-457: The growing array of offerings resulted in digital transmission that made more efficient use of the VHF signal capacity; fibre optics was common to carry signals into areas near the home, where coax could carry higher frequencies over the short remaining distance. Although for a time in the 1980s and 1990s, television receivers and VCRs were equipped to receive the mid-band and super-band channels. Due to

26289-450: The headend, the electrical signal is translated into an optical signal and sent through the fiber. The fiber trunkline goes to several distribution hubs , from which multiple fibers fan out to carry the signal to boxes called optical nodes in local communities. At the optical node, the optical signal is translated back into an electrical signal and carried by coaxial cable distribution lines on utility poles, from which cables branch out to

26496-490: The hierarchy of the majors: RKO, perennially the weakest of the Big Five, declined rapidly under the mismanagement of Howard Hughes , who had purchased a controlling interest in the studio in 1948. By the time Hughes sold it to the General Tire and Rubber Company in 1955, the studio was a major by outdated reputation alone. In 1957, virtually all RKO movie operations ceased and the studio was dissolved in 1959. (Revived on

26703-400: The industry by not only producing and distributing motion pictures, but by entering into exhibition as well. On October 6, 1927, Warner Bros. released The Jazz Singer , starring Al Jolson , and a whole new era began, with "pictures that talked", bringing the studio to the forefront of the film industry. The Jazz Singer played to standing-room-only crowds throughout the country and earned

26910-749: The influx of sports-based streaming services (such as DAZN and ESPN+ ) as well as other issues with promoters that hampered HBO's ability to acquire high-profile fight cards, declining ratings and loss of interest in the sport among HBO's subscribers, and the network's efforts to place more focus around its scripted programming in the aftermath of its acquisition by WarnerMedia. In 1993, HBO purchased post-theatrical distribution rights for 48 films in development from upstart production company Savoy Pictures (co-founded by Victor A. Kaufman and Lewis J. Korman). Savoy Pictures never generated success with any of its feature film releases, and eventually folded in 1997. In 2005, HBO Films and New Line Cinema formed Picturehouse ,

27117-460: The jack in the wall is attached to the input of the box, and an output cable from the box is attached to the television, usually the RF-IN or composite input on older TVs. Since the set-top box only decodes the single channel that is being watched, each television in the house requires a separate box. Some unencrypted channels, usually traditional over-the-air broadcast networks, can be displayed without

27324-490: The late 1980s, cable-only signals outnumbered broadcast signals on cable systems, some of which by this time had expanded beyond 35 channels. By the mid-1980s in Canada, cable operators were allowed by the regulators to enter into distribution contracts with cable networks on their own. By the 1990s, tiers became common, with customers able to subscribe to different tiers to obtain different selections of additional channels above

27531-446: The latter company, who had previously released certain titles via Thorn EMI/HBO, acquired a major stake in rival independent video company International Video Entertainment , HBO/Cannon paid $ 43 million to return two films, Angel Heart and Extreme Prejudice , to Carolco, which then relicensed the home video rights to IVE. Additional issues arose when multiple Cannon titles intended for release through HBO/Cannon, such as Masters of

27738-524: The latter would have paid fellow minority shareholders Taft Television & Radio Company and Tele-Communications Inc. BET repurchased all of Time Warner's stock in April 1996 in a $ 58-million transaction. In 1985, the operations of Home Box Office Inc. were relocated to facilities on West 42nd Street and Sixth Avenue in the Bryant Park district of Midtown Manhattan. Home Box Office, Inc. began diversifying its portfolio beyond cable television during

27945-543: The laws saw as overbroad and in violation of the First Amendment, and would have precluded HBO and other pay television networks from airing programs containing material that may be considered inappropriate. Two of these involved statutes in Utah : HBO and four Utah cable systems sought a permanent injunction to a 1981 statute passed by the Utah State Legislature to restrict indecent cable program content, which

28152-429: The major studios and attempt to compete directly with them. Secondary studio Orion Pictures January 1978 Summit Entertainment July 26, 1991 Past mini-majors include: Semi-major studios (or "semi-majors") are significant studios that are sisters to or had a stake held by a major film studio. Secondary studio DreamWorks Pictures October 12, 1994 In 1909, Thomas Edison , who had been fighting in

28359-405: The majors to a new "Big Five" for the first time since Hollywood's Golden Age. Thus, Paramount and Warner are the only Golden Age Big Five members to remain as majors today with the same names, while 20th Century Studios continues to be a major under the ownership of Disney. While the Big Five's main studio lots are located within 15 miles (24 km) of each other, Paramount is the only member of

28566-522: The majors' control of the North American market was at a historic ebb. Orion (now completely independent of Warner) and Tri-Star were well positioned as mini-majors, each with North American market shares of around 6% and regarded by industry observers as "fully competitive with the majors", much like MGM and Lionsgate by the turn of the century. Smaller independents garnered 13%—more than any studio aside from Paramount. In 1964, by comparison, all of

28773-614: The manufacturing of physical products to Warner Home Video , and by 2020 had fully merged into Warner Bros. Home Entertainment. On April 1, 1986, HBO commenced test-marketing of a new mini-pay service, Festival , to six American Television and Communications Corporation systems. Festival was targeted at older cable subscribers who objected to violent and sexual content on other pay cable services, non-cable television viewers, and basic cable subscribers that had no existing premium service subscription. Festival ceased operations on December 31, 1988; HBO cited headend channel capacity limitations for

28980-471: The market. Ten years later, the picture was largely the same: the Big Five had market shares ranging from 22% (MGM) to 9% (RKO); the Little Three had shares ranging from 8% (Columbia) to 4% (United Artists). In sum, the eight majors controlled 96% of the market. The end of the Golden Age had been signaled by the majors' loss of a federal antitrust case that led to the divestiture of the Big Five's theater chains. Though this had virtually no immediate effect on

29187-423: The maximum number of channels that could be broadcast in one city was 7: channels 2, 4, either 5 or 6, 7, 9, 11 and 13, as receivers at the time were unable to receive strong (local) signals on adjacent channels without distortion. (There were frequency gaps between 4 and 5, and between 6 and 7, which allowed both to be used in the same city). As equipment improved, all twelve channels could be utilized, except where

29394-692: The merger of his production division, IMP (Independent Motion Picture Company), with several other filmmaking companies, creating the Universal Film Manufacturing Company in New York City . By the end of the year, Universal was making movies at two Los Angeles facilities: the former Nestor Film studio in Hollywood, and another studio in Edendale . The first Hollywood major studio was in business. In 1918, four brothers— Harry , Albert , Sam , and Jack Warner —founded

29601-819: The merger via civil injunctions, wanting to thwart the Warner offer as Paramount was seeking to acquire Time in a hostile takeover bid . The Time Inc.-Warner Communications merger was completed on January 10, 1990, resulting in the consolidated entity becoming known as Time Warner. (Manhattan Cable Television would be integrated into Time Warner Cable —formed through a consolidation of the cable system assets of American Television and Communications [ATC], which Time acquired for $ 140 million in January 1978 and subsequently integrated with Manhattan Cable, and Warner Cable Communications—and would adopt its parent unit's identity in January 1993. Time Warner Cable would be spun-off from its namesake parent as an independent company in 2009, and later merged into Charter Communications in May 2016.) By

29808-399: The mid-1970s, the industry had rebounded and a significant philosophical shift was in progress. As the majors focused increasingly on the development of the next hoped-for blockbuster and began routinely opening each new movie in many hundreds of theaters (an approach called "saturation booking"), their collective yearly release average fell to 81 films during 1975–84. The classic set of majors

30015-464: The mid-2000s. Paramount's parent company Gulf+Western was renamed Paramount Communications and Coca-Cola sold Columbia to Japanese electronics firm Sony in 1989, creating Sony Pictures . The following year, Warner Communications merged with Time Inc. to birth Time Warner and Universal's parent company MCA was purchased by fellow Japanese electronics conglomerate Matsushita . At this time, both Tri-Star and Orion were essentially out of business:

30222-424: The minor exception of the 1985 comedy film Volunteers . A secondary internal film production unit, HBO Showcase, was created in 1986 to focus primarily on high-quality drama productions. One of its productions, 1989's Age Old Friends , became the unit's first film to earn Primetime Emmy Awards, respectively for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Miniseries or Movie ( Hume Cronyn ) and Outstanding Supporting Actor in

30429-709: The most amazing stories to life, with Discovery’s global brand that has always stood brightly for integrity, innovation and inspiration." The merger was officially completed on April 8, 2022, with Home Box Office, Inc. becoming a subsidiary of WBD; in addition to his existing duties as CEO of Home Box Office, Inc., Casey Bloys—one of four upper-level WarnerMedia division executives to remain with WBD post-merger—assumed oversight of Magnolia Network (through parent unit Warner Bros. Discovery Lifestyle Brands), which had previously been managed alongside Discovery's other factual and lifestyle brands. (The other Discovery networks continue to report to Kathleen Finch, who also assumed oversight of

30636-825: The movie industry and free-to-air television access, limited user interest, and FCC restrictions on the types of programming that could be offered to subscription services. Undeterred, Dolan managed to persuade Time-Life to assist him in backing the project. After the Federal Communications Commission ruled that local governments could not restrict the operation of subscription television services in cable franchise terms, in July 1971, Sterling Communications—now consisting of Sterling Manhattan; its Long Island -based sister system, Sterling Nassau Cable Television; production firm Allegro Films; and direct-to-cable programming firm Television Presentations Inc.—informed

30843-402: The nearest network newscast. Such stations may use similar on-air branding as that used by the nearby broadcast network affiliate, but the fact that these stations do not broadcast over the air and are not regulated by the FCC, their call signs are meaningless. These stations evolved partially into today's over-the-air digital subchannels, where a main broadcast TV station e.g. NBC 37* would – in

31050-408: The old analog cable without a set-top box. To receive digital cable channels on an analog television set, even unencrypted ones, requires a different type of box, a digital television adapter supplied by the cable company or purchased by the subscriber. Another new distribution method that takes advantage of the low cost high quality DVB distribution to residential areas, uses TV gateways to convert

31257-562: The operations of HBO and other movie- and sports-based cable services (including local and regional subscription television operations). Under the regulations, cable-originated services could not devote more than 90% of their programming schedule to theatrical motion pictures and sporting events, and could not broadcast movies released within three years of their initial theatrical exhibition. Specific sporting events (such as annual tournaments) could not be "siphoned off" by cable services if such events had been televised on broadcast television within

31464-604: The original format of MTV (which, ironically, was launched under WBD's predecessor Warner Communications and American Express's media joint venture, Warner–Amex Satellite Entertainment). Its competitor was Viacom-owned Ha!: The TV Comedy Network , another startup comedy-oriented cable channel that was formally announced after The Comedy Channel and debuted on April 1 , 1990, focusing on reruns of older network sitcoms. Both channels experienced difficulties gaining sufficient cable distribution (both Ha! and The Comedy Channel each had fewer than 10 million subscribers), and struggled to turn

31671-507: The others function as both production and distribution companies. The specialty divisions (such as Disney's Searchlight Pictures and Universal's Focus Features ) often acquire distribution rights to films in which the studio has had no prior involvement. While the majors still do a modicum of true production, their activities are focused more in the areas of development, financing, marketing, and merchandising. Those business functions are still usually performed in or near Los Angeles, even though

31878-420: The partnership of participating promoters . The announcement came as HBO secured an agreement with promoter Dan Duva to broadcast then-heavyweight champion Evander Holyfield 's pay-cable and pay-per-view matches, which had been airing on Showtime since 1986. HBO announced it would fold HBO PPV on September 27, 2018, as part of the HBO television service's broader exit from boxing telecasts after 45 years, citing

32085-623: The past five years, and regular season games involving major sports leagues was limited to allow a proportion of games to continue to be shown on broadcast television or else cable programmers would be required to limit their sports programming proportionately should over-the-air sports telecasts decline. On November 3, Home Box Office Inc., Manhattan Cable Television, five other cable television system operators (American Television and Communications Corp., Viacode , UA-Columbia Cablevision , Warner Cable Communications and TelePrompTer Corp. ) and competing pay-cable programming operator Theatrevision filed

32292-463: The peak of the fad, every person in the United States over the age of six was watching a motion picture in a theater at least once a week. The box office revenue from the first sound films is what enabled the Hollywood majors to achieve their lasting domination of the global film industry. Between late 1928, when RCA 's David Sarnoff engineered the creation of the RKO (Radio-Keith-Orpheum) studio, and

32499-630: The plaintiffs in Home Box Office v. FCC , overturning cable television anti-siphoning rules. (Similar rules applying to over-the-air pay television were affirmed in the ruling.) The 105-page decision held that the FCC trespassed on the First Amendment rights of cable operators, pointing that cable bandwidth was not a scarce resource and therefore, was not subject to limitations affirmed in the Supreme Court 's 1969 Red Lion Broadcasting Co. v. FCC ruling (which upheld equal time provisions in

32706-446: The potential benefit to the company's cable assets, were initially hesitant to consider the "Green Channel" proposal. In the early 1970s, the cable television industry was not very profitable, and was under constant scrutiny from FCC regulators and the major broadcast television networks ( CBS , NBC and ABC ), who saw cable as a threat to their viability. Attempts to launch pay television services had been done on an experimental basis in

32913-453: The primary motion picture business subsidiary of each respective conglomerate. Since the dawn of filmmaking , the major U.S. film studios have dominated both American cinema and the global film industry . U.S. studios have benefited from a strong first-mover advantage in that they were the first to industrialize filmmaking and master the art of mass-producing and distributing high-quality films with broad cross-cultural appeal. Today,

33120-504: The programming at the headend (the individual channels, which are distributed nationally, also have their own nationally oriented commercials). Modern cable systems are large, with a single network and headend often serving an entire metropolitan area . Most systems use hybrid fiber-coaxial (HFC) distribution; this means the trunklines that carry the signal from the headend to local neighborhoods are optical fiber to provide greater bandwidth and also extra capacity for future expansion. At

33327-454: The programming without cost. Later, the cable operators began to carry FM radio stations, and encouraged subscribers to connect their FM stereo sets to cable. Before stereo and bilingual TV sound became common, Pay-TV channel sound was added to the FM stereo cable line-ups. About this time, operators expanded beyond the 12-channel dial to use the midband and superband VHF channels adjacent to

33534-476: The range of reception for early cable-ready TVs and VCRs. However, once consumer sets had the ability to receive all 181 FCC allocated channels, premium broadcasters were left with no choice but to scramble. The descrambling circuitry was often published in electronics hobby magazines such as Popular Science and Popular Electronics allowing anybody with anything more than a rudimentary knowledge of broadcast electronics to be able to build their own and receive

33741-481: The remaining 29% share, with each shareholder group appointing representative board members ; David Zaslav , President and CEO of Discovery, would head the new company, replacing WarnerMedia CEO Jason Kilar. On June 1, 2021, it was announced that the merged company would be known as Warner Bros. Discovery ; Zaslav explained that it would reflect "the combination of Warner Bros.' fabled hundred-year legacy of creative, authentic storytelling and taking bold risks to bring

33948-402: The rules as administrative record did not support FCC allegations of content "siphoning" by cable-originated services. NBC and ABC , however, requested re-consideration of an increase to the minimum period of exclusive broadcast exhibition of movies from two years to three.) Earlier in 1975, the film exhibition rules prevented HBO from licensing two 20th Century Fox films released well outside

34155-756: The same building . Meanwhile, Sony Pictures Motion Picture Group is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Sony Pictures Entertainment, which is owned by Tokyo-based Sony Group Corporation and is the only US film studio owned by a foreign conglomerate, while Universal is owned by Philadelphia-based Comcast (via NBCUniversal ), and the other two report to corporations headquartered in New York City — Paramount Global and Warner Bros. Discovery . Most of today's Big Five also control subsidiaries with their own distribution networks that concentrate on arthouse pictures (e.g., Universal's Focus Features ) or genre films (e.g., Sony's Screen Gems ); several other specialty units were shut down or sold off between 2008 and 2010. Outside of

34362-405: The same corporate umbrella as AT&T's telecommunications holdings, including satellite provider DirecTV and IPTV /broadband provider AT&T U-verse . Time Warner shareholders approved the merger on February 15, 2017. On November 20, 2017, the U.S. Department of Justice filed a lawsuit against AT&T and Time Warner in an attempt to block the merger, citing antitrust concerns surrounding

34569-553: The same manner as broadcast television. A separate city ordinance in Miami that would have allowed the revocation of Miami Cablevision (now operated by Comcast)'s franchise license for carrying programs that the city manager deemed "obscene or indecent" was struck down by Judge William Hoeveler of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida on August 3, 1983, on the grounds outlined in Jenkins' ruling, and affirmed by

34776-424: The service's start-up costs by having Sterling enter into carriage agreements with other cable television providers to transmit and sell the service to their customers, and draw revenue from fees charged to subscribers who added the channel onto their existing cable service (which then consisted exclusively of local and imported broadcast stations). Dolan later presented his idea to management at Time-Life, who, despite

34983-420: The service. Programming on HBO initially consisted of theatrical films and event programming (much of which was sourced to the service through an agreement with Madison Square Garden that dated to 1969, and was extended to allow regional broadcasts one week before HBO launched), arranged in the form of a double feature , or a single movie presentation paired with either a sports or special event (often bridged by

35190-418: The signals are typically encrypted on modern digital cable systems, and the set-top box must be activated by an activation code sent by the cable company before it will function, which is only sent after the subscriber signs up. If the subscriber fails to pay their bill, the cable company can send a signal to deactivate the subscriber's box, preventing reception. There are also usually upstream channels on

35397-412: The signals, Sterling had laid new cable lines beneath the streets of and into buildings throughout Manhattan, and repurposed Teleguide's existing cable infrastructure for use by the new operation. Sterling's use of underground cables complied with a longstanding New York City Council ordinance—originally implemented to prevent broad-scale telephone and telegraph outages, after a severe blizzard affecting

35604-620: The standalone HBO service's average $ 14.99 monthly fee. Stankey, meanwhile, wanted to leverage HBO and the broader WarnerMedia content library to develop a viable streaming competitor to Netflix , which resulted in the development and May 2020 launch of HBO Max over HBO Go and HBO Now's existing technical infrastructure. On March 4, 2019, AT&T announced a major reorganization of WarnerMedia's assets, dividing WarnerMedia's television properties among three corporate divisions. Home Box Office, Inc. (encompassing HBO, Cinemax, and their respective wholly owned international channels and streaming services)

35811-413: The start of 1990, HBO served 17.3 million subscribers out of a cumulative 23.7 million subscribers covered between it and sister network Cinemax. On November 15, 1989, Home Box Office, Inc. launched The Comedy Channel , a comedy-centered basic cable channel featuring clips excerpted from stand-up comedy sets, comedic feature films and television series. The Comedy Channel's programming model was similar to

36018-589: The strategy established by Thorn EMI continued; HBO/Cannon struck deals with Kings Road Entertainment , fellow Time, Inc. property Sports Illustrated , and De Laurentiis Entertainment Group for video rights to theatrical films (and, in SI's case, direct-to-video product). Ironically, however, very few Cannon films were released by HBO/Cannon, due in part to other deals Cannon had previously made with MGM/UA Home Video and Media Home Entertainment . HBO/Cannon also ran into issues with Cannon's rival Carolco Pictures ; when

36225-403: The subscriber's residence, the company's service drop cable is connected to cables distributing the signal to different rooms in the building. At each television, the subscriber's television or a set-top box provided by the cable company translates the desired channel back to its original frequency ( baseband ), and it is displayed onscreen. Due to widespread cable theft in earlier analog systems,

36432-688: The system's parent company. Gerald M. Levin —an entertainment industry attorney previously with New York City-based law firm Simpson Thacher & Bartlett , who had been with Home Box Office since it began operations as its director of finance , and later as its vice president and director of programming—replaced Dolan as the company's president and CEO; by September, he was joined by Time Life vice president J. Richard Munro as chairman of Home Box Office as well as Time-Life Broadcast's other subsidiaries, Manhattan Cable Television and NBC affiliate WOTV (now WOOD-TV ) in Grand Rapids, Michigan (which became

36639-530: The system—inspired by the advisory ratings featured in HBO and Cinemax's respective program guides and those distributed by other participating premium cable services—was in response to concerns from parents and advocacy groups about violent content on television, allowing HBO and other services to assign individual ratings corresponding to the objectionable content depicted in specific programs (and categorized based on violence, profanity, sexuality or miscellaneous mature material). Labels are assigned to each program at

36846-459: The television production business, in April 1987, with the formation of Tri-Star Television . Towards the second half of the decade, the partnership transitioned into a singularly owned entity: CBS sold its ownership stake in the studio in November 1985, followed by HBO/Time Inc. in December 1985. HBO transferred its venture shares to Columbia Pictures , which integrated Columbia and Tri-Star into

37053-458: The television signal is transmitted over-the-air by radio waves and received by a television antenna , or satellite television , in which the television signal is transmitted over-the-air by radio waves from a communications satellite and received by a satellite dish on the roof. FM radio programming, high-speed Internet , telephone services , and similar non-television services may also be provided through these cables. Analog television

37260-491: The then-burgeoning home video marketplace, HBO announced plans to launch a home video unit, and began conversations with executives at both Vestron and Thorn EMI Video , in hopes that a joint venture between the network and at least one of the two video distributors could be established. HBO ultimately selected Thorn EMI, and that November, Thorn EMI/HBO Video was formed to distribute Thorn EMI's existing selection of product, plus HBO-produced programming. Thorn EMI's strategy at

37467-438: The three former Turner networks reassigned to WarnerMedia Entertainment being brought back under the same umbrella as sister networks Cartoon Network/ Adult Swim , Boomerang and Turner Classic Movies.) Among the around 800 employees whose positions were eliminated as part of the changes, the restructuring resulted in the layoffs of around 150 Home Box Office, Inc. employees. On May 17, 2021, AT&T and Discovery, Inc. reached

37674-544: The time it went national—became the first television broadcaster to transmit via satellite as a basic cable service, pioneering the " superstation " concept (non-network-affiliated television stations that transmit on a regional or national basis primarily through cable). This, along with the CBN Satellite Service (now Freeform ) launching by satellite in April 1977—pioneered the development of basic cable, using HBO's blueprint of utilizing satellite delivery for

37881-641: The time was to supplement the modest output of Thorn EMI's Screen Entertainment division , by way of signing distribution agreements with various mid-level and independent film production companies (such as Orion Pictures and New Line Cinema , as well as UK television station Thames Television ) that did not have their own home video units. In August 1986, Cannon Films acquired Thorn EMI's interest in Thorn EMI/HBO Video, inherited from Thorn EMI Screen Entertainment, which Time Inc. subsequently renamed HBO/Cannon Video . Under Cannon's part-ownership,

38088-503: The transaction. U.S. clearance of the proposed merger—which had already received approval from European , Mexican , Chilean and Brazilian regulatory authorities—was affirmed by court ruling on June 12, 2018, after District of Columbia U.S. District Court Judge Richard J. Leon ruled in favor of AT&T, and dismissed antitrust claims asserted in the DOJ's lawsuit. The merger closed two days later on June 14, 2018, with Time Warner becoming

38295-486: The two existing platforms continue to be sold, WarnerMedia began phasing out HBO Now on participating digital platforms with the launch of HBO Max, which utilizes a similar design interface as HBO Now for its Apple and Android apps. On October 22, 2016, AT&T disclosed an offer to acquire Time Warner for $ 108.7 billion, including assumed debt held by the latter company. The merger would bring Time Warner's various media properties, including Home Box Office, Inc., under

38502-486: The two-year window, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969) and The Sound of Music (1965). Though rules for movies and sports were tightened, the FCC conversely drafted relaxed rules limiting pay television services from airing a television series unless it has had no prior conventional television broadcast, suggesting allowing pay services to carry series not purchased by broadcast outlets, under contract to

38709-440: The umbrella company Columbia Pictures Entertainment. (As of 2020, TriStar operates exclusively as a film production arm of Sony Pictures Entertainment . Its television unit was merged with Columbia Pictures Television and joint venture studio Columbia TriStar Television in 2002 to form Sony Pictures Television ). Film production for the HBO television service commenced in 1983, through the formation of HBO Premiere Films, which

38916-422: The unit was subsequently renamed HBO Video . HBO began taking action to ensure that their video arm would continue to have fresh product, such as an eight film co-production deal with ITC Entertainment , which gave HBO all pay cable and video rights (while ITC retained all foreign and free-to-air TV rights to the films), and promotional deals designed to push rental releases. Also that year, the company entered into

39123-532: The upstream speed to 31.2 Kbp/s and prevented the always-on convenience broadband internet typically provides. Many large cable systems have upgraded or are upgrading their equipment to allow for bi-directional signals, thus allowing for greater upload speed and always-on convenience, though these upgrades are expensive. In North America , Australia and Europe , many cable operators have already introduced cable telephone service, which operates just like existing fixed line operators. This service involves installing

39330-510: The value of Sterling stock in order to "force" the sale at below market value "far less than its true value.") As the acquisition was being completed, the service had struggled to grow to complete viability: by October, it had around 8,000 subscribers and was carried on 13 cable systems in Pennsylvania and southern New York State with a combined 110,095 subscribers, and it was suffering from a significant churn rate as subscribers who found

39537-637: The venture in April 2003, when Viacom bought out its 50% stake in Comedy Central for $ 1.23 billion. (As of 2020, Comedy Central operates under the Media Networks unit of Paramount Global .) On December 19, 1990, Home Box Office, Inc. announced the formation of TVKO (renamed HBO PPV in 2001 and HBO Boxing Pay-Per-View in 2013), a sports production unit—operated by Time Warner Sports, in conjunction with its HBO Sports unit—which distributed and organized marquee pay-per-view boxing events with

39744-418: The yearly average down to 288 for the decade. Among the significant characteristics of the Golden Age was the stability of the Hollywood majors, their hierarchy, and their near-complete domination of the box office. At the midpoint of the Golden Age, 1939, the Big Five had market shares ranging from 22% (MGM) to 9% (RKO); each of the Little Three had around a 7% share. In sum, the eight majors controlled 95% of

39951-528: Was Ricochet (a co-production with Silver Pictures ); other titles produced throughout Cinema Plus' existence included Mom and Dad Save the World , Switch and Don't Tell Mom the Babysitter's Dead . All of the films—none of which were critical or commercial successes—were released between 1991 and 1992, and were distributed theatrically by HBO sister company Warner Bros. Pictures . Home Box Office, Inc. entered into television production outside of

40158-556: Was able to acquire a much larger studio in Burbank, which it began to use starting in 1928 (and which is famous for its signature water tower ). Warner Bros. eventually expanded its studio operations to Leavesden in London. Warner Bros. Studio Leavesden is the main studio in production of hit movies like the Harry Potter film series , The Dark Knight and the recent ones like The Batman and Ready Player One . In 1916,

40365-430: Was cut short by the advanced-stage osteosarcoma that ended his life through associated complications soon afterward. Differing from most television films produced for cable television, most of the original movies produced by HBO have featured major film actors over the years, ranging from James Stewart to Michael Douglas . The unit—which would be rechristened HBO Pictures in 1986—expanded beyond its telefilm slate, which

40572-438: Was down to five; its average for the rest of the 1970s would be even lower. Like RKO in its last days under Hughes, MGM remained a major in terms of brand reputation, but little more. Disney by contrast began to ascend towards major status through a resurgence in its animated movies, beginning with The Rescuers (1977), and the studio began to enter the adult market with The Black Hole (1979), its first non-G rated film. By

40779-665: Was granted by Judge Bruce S. Jenkins of the U.S. District Court for the District of Utah on November 17, 1981; the statute was declared unconstitutional as a violation of the First and Fourteenth Amendments in a separate ruling by Jenkins on January 13, 1982. A second attempt at addressing obscene cable programming, the Cable Television Programming Decency Act, was declared unconstitutional on First Amendment grounds by Utah District Court Senior District Judge Aldon J. Anderson on April 10, 1985, in

40986-427: Was limited, meaning frequencies over 250 MHz were difficult to transmit to distant portions of the coaxial network, and UHF channels could not be used at all. To expand beyond 12 channels, non-standard midband channels had to be used, located between the FM band and Channel 7, or superband beyond Channel 13 up to about 300 MHz; these channels initially were only accessible using separate tuner boxes that sent

41193-559: Was mainly used to relay terrestrial channels in geographical areas poorly served by terrestrial television signals. Cable television began in the United States as a commercial business in 1950s. The early systems simply received weak ( broadcast ) channels, amplified them, and sent them over unshielded wires to the subscribers, limited to a community or to adjacent communities. The receiving antenna would be taller than any individual subscriber could afford, thus bringing in stronger signals; in hilly or mountainous terrain it would be placed at

41400-403: Was originally developed to produce original made-for-cable movies and miniseries with higher budgets and production values compared to other television films. The film division began producing original movies for the network in 1983 with the debut of The Terry Fox Story , a biographical film on the amputee runner who embarked on a cross-country run across his home country of Canada that

41607-765: Was reassigned to WarnerMedia Entertainment , placing it under the same umbrella as sister basic cable networks TBS, TNT and TruTV (which were formerly part of the dissolved Turner Broadcasting System subsidiary), and under the leadership of former NBC and Showtime executive Bob Greenblatt . However, Home Box Office, Inc. otherwise operates as an autonomous subsidiary within the WarnerMedia Entertainment umbrella. (Other former Turner assets were split between two other new subsidiaries: WarnerMedia News & Sports , which oversees CNN and its sister networks, Turner Sports and management operations for NBA TV , and Warner Bros. Global Kids, Young Adults and Classics,

41814-544: Was received by UA-Columbia Cablevision 's Fort Pierce and Vero Beach , Florida , systems, and American Television and Communications Corporation's Jackson , Mississippi system, alongside systems already receiving HBO via microwave beforehand in the northeastern U.S. The service temporarily retransmitted its signal from transponder on Westar 1 for the first three months of satellite transmissions, before switching to Satcom I when that satellite commenced commercial operations on February 1, 1976. It also gradually turned around

42021-545: Was replaced by two dedicated Spanish feeds of the two services, HBO en Español and Cinemax en Español, on September 27, 1993; both channels acted 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 programming. On March 4, 1989, Warner Communications announced its intent to merge with Time Inc. for $ 14.9 billion in cash and stock. The merger underwent two unsuccessful efforts by Paramount Communications to block

42228-561: Was scaled back, and soon ventured into independent film production. In 1985, HBO made a co-financing agreement with Orion Pictures in order to finance Three Amigos! , in order to receive half of the film's planned budget. When HBO Pictures was formed, HBO entered into a limited partnership with Thorn EMI to form Silver Screen Partners . The first L.P. of its kind to be developed for the financing of feature film production, Silver Screen released only seven films between 1983 and 1986. Most of these were not commercial or critical successes, with

42435-400: Was shaken further in late 1980, when the disastrously expensive flop of Heaven's Gate effectively ruined United Artists. The studio was sold the following year to Kerkorian, who merged it with MGM. After a brief resurgence, the combined studio continued to decline. From 1986, MGM/UA has been at best a "mini-major", to use the present-day term. Meanwhile, a new member was finally admitted to

42642-455: Was standard in the 20th century, but since the 2000s, cable systems have been upgraded to digital cable operation. A cable channel (sometimes known as a cable network ) is a television network available via cable television. Many of the same channels are distributed through satellite television . Alternative terms include non-broadcast channel or programming service , the latter being mainly used in legal contexts. The abbreviation CATV

42849-675: Was ultimately reached that allowed HBO to offer video cassettes of the contested films for the first half of 1988, after which the rights reverted to Vestron. Over time, HBO Video—which eventually became HBO Home Video in January 1994—shifted focus away from releasing films from independent studios to releasing HBO's catalog of original programs and films on DVD and Blu-ray Disc. In addition, HBO Video also entered into various licensing deals with distributors such as Congress Video, Goodtimes Home Video , and Video Treasures to distribute and re-issue HBO's content catalogs. The unit—renamed HBO Home Entertainment on September 5, 2009—eventually transferred

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