HBO (Home Box Office), was the original pay channel here in the US.
It brought recent Hollywood movies to your television for a small monthly fee. The movies were uncut and uncensored. It also brought specials, made for HBO movies and shows right to your very own television. You no longer had to go out to a movie theatre! It ran 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Local television stations were becoming passe’ !
Now, when I turn on my television, 30 years later, there are 5 HBO channels to choose from. Regular HBO, HBO for families, HBO for romance movies, HBO for westerns, and HBO Two. (I guess it’s just an expanded version of the original.)
The movies on HBO original and Two, are still recent releases, uncut and uncensored. But there are also a wide variety of made for HBO shows as well. HBO has brought us, The Sopranos, Sex and the City, Taxi Cab Confessions , Real Sex and Oz , to name a few shows.
HBO for families, brings us uncut family oriented movies, rated ’’G’’ (general audience). And family oriented shows and specials.
The rest of the HBO channels are self explanitory.
The original $9.95 per month charge has now gone up to about $40.00 per month, because of the added HBO channels. But just think about it. A night out to a movie, for a family costs about the same amount as a month of HBO!
There are no commercial breaks at all. And, the shows and movies are repeated several times a month, at different times of the day and night, so everyone gets a chance to see what they want.
HBO now has many, many competitors here in the US. There is Cinemax (1 & 2), The Movie Channel (1 & 2), Showtime (1, 2 & 3), Starz, Encore, etc., etc.
The once inexpensive pay TV channel is now costing the average American family about (hold on to your hats!) $85.00 per month!
They’ve made watching television an investment. You get no reception what-so-ever without cable hook up.
HBO, to me is the original, and still the best. It has the most movies and original programing of all the other channels combined. It is now allowing you to choose which of the HBO channels are most suitable for your household. The original programing is getting better, with some of the shows up for television awards. (Sex and the City, Oz, and The Sopranos have all gotten awards for outstanding programing!)
As I said before, ’’The original, is still the best!’’ And HBO was the original!