HBO Asia

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

HBO Asia
HBO Asia logo
Availability Bangladesh, Brunei, Cambodia, China, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Macau, Malaysia, Mongolia, Nepal, Papua New Guinea, Philippines, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Palau, Taiwan, Thailand and Vietnam.
Owner Home Box Office .Inc, Time Warner
Website
HBOAsia.com
HBO Asia
Availability
Satellite
Astro Malaysia Channel 411
Astro Nusantara Indonesia Channel 66
Indovision (Indonesia) Channel 7
TelkomVision (Indonesia) Unknown Channel
TrueVisions (Thailand) Channel 13
DialogTV (Sri Lanka) Channel 4
HBO Ary digital (Pakistan) Channel 10
Cable
SkyCable (Philippines) Channel 54 / Channel 62 for some that has Addressable Boxes
Global Destiny (Philippines) Channel 37
StarHub Cable Vision (Singapore) Channel 60
now TV (Hong Kong) Channel 115
First Media (Indonesia) Channel 285
TrueVisions (Thailand) Channel 13
United Communication Service (Bangladesh) Channel 31 (HBO Asia), Channel 54 (HBO India)
HCaTV (Vietnam) Channel 20
Tay Do CaTV (Vietnam) Channel 03

HBO Asia is a franchise of HBO in Asia. HBO Asia is a joint venture of media giants Viacom (25%) and Time Warner (75%). Sony Pictures Entertainment and Universal Studios have exited the 15-year-old HBO Asia premium movie joint venture from 16 Jan, 2008.

Contents

[edit] History

Launched in 1992, HBO is a 24-hour subscription movie channel that offers viewers in Asia the latest and biggest blockbuster movies with a choice of more than 120 commercial-free titles every month. HBO also offers quality original movies and series that are produced by HBO, exclusively for viewers of the HBO channel. HBO is recognized as the best in the business at producing original programs for television, winning the top Emmy and Golden Globe Awards year after year.

[edit] About the Company

Singapore-based HBO Asia, the leader in home entertainment, brings the best of Hollywood to Asia first due to its licensing deals with major Hollywood studios - Columbia/TriStar, Paramount Pictures (DreamWorks), Universal Studios and Warner Bros.

HBO Asia has five channels under its multi-channel strategy (HBO, HBO Signature, HBO HiTS, HBO Family and Cinemax), giving subscribers the ultimate premium movie entertainment package, providing subscribers with more viewing options at any one time for an incredible value. HBO also launched its first Subscription Video-On-Demand service, HBO ON DEMAND, in Hong Kong. HBO is available in 22 countries throughout Asia and has closed-captioned subtitling in several local languages.

[edit] Slogan

  • Simply The Best: 1992 to present

[edit] Primetime

  • Movies are anchored at 7pm, 9pm and 11pm (Singapore Time) every day so viewers can always catch their favorite movies at the top of every other hour between 7pm and 11pm.
  • The latest and biggest Hollywood blockbusters are guaranteed to premiere for the very first time on Asian television in 2007 on weekends during evening prime-time at 7pm, 9pm and 11pm (SIN).
  • Get clued in and get behind the scenes on all the newest blockbusters that will explode in the cinemas with First Look, a dedicated half-hour show focusing on the absolute best from Hollywood.
  • HBO Central is the viewers' monthly guide to the hottest attractions and an exciting look at what’s new on the channel each month on HBO, including Hollywood gossip, behind-the-scenes tidbits, superstar profiles and red carpet style guides. HBO Central is a one-stop hub of entertainment news that is all about HBO, on HBO. Hosted by Simone Heng
  • New on the Big Screen, a monthly rundown of specially recommended movies viewers need to watch premiering in the movie theaters in their countries.
  • New seasons of award-winning and groundbreaking HBO Original Series and HBO Original Productions that are made by HBO exclusively for HBO provoke and entertain, on Monday nights at 11pm (Singapore Time).
  • The latest and biggest Hollywood blockbusters are guaranteed to premiere for the very first time on Asian television on Sunday Nights at 9pm (SIN). After the premiering, that movie will be repeated many times in next whole 7 days.
    • Premiere: Sunday at 9pm (SIN)
    • Repeat: Monday at 3am and 1pm, Tuesday at 12am, 7am and 5pm, Thursday at 7pm, Friday at 5am, Saturday at 11am and 11pm, Sunday at 3pm (SIN)

[edit] HBO in South Asia

[edit] India

HBO Asia airs a separate Ad break filled PAY TV feed for viewers in South Asia. The channel is labeled as HBO South Asia and often referred to as HBO India since it specifically caters to the Indian market. All movie promos in this beam are according to IST The channel is also available to viewers in Bangladesh, Maldives. In this area, the movie licenses from DreamWorks runs to Star Movies.

[edit] Pakistan

In Pakistan, HBO is available as HBO Pakistan. It is a simulcast of HBO South Asia with slight modifications and running in PST. Diwali ads and other adverts targeted towards India are filtered out in this beam. Only Pakistani adverts are present in this beam. This beam can also be called the +0.30 version of HBO South Asia since all the programs aired on this beam are aired with a 30min delay.

[edit] Censorship

[edit] South East Asia

  • Singapore:

Since HBO Asia headquarters is in Singapore, HBO Asia has to follow Singapore Law, which includes cuts, etc... One of the programs that experience this kind of treatment is "Sex in the City".

  • Philippines:

The HBO-made series "Entourage" was taken off-air for 3 weeks by one cable operator in the Philippines pending clearance by MTRCB. The entire series continued to air without discrution on all other Philippines cable operators.

  • Vietnam:

Every movie with contents which opposes or distorts the Vietnam War, Vietnam Communist Party and the Communism is replaced by a black screen. In addition, if the Ministry of Culture and Information considers a movie is of a serious sexual or horrific nature not conforming with Vietnamese society, it will not be aired.

[edit] HBO Multiplex Channels

Network Description Website
HBO HiTS Shows the biggest Blockbusters and Hits. Official Site
HBO Family Shows family oriented films. Official Site
HBO Signature Shows critically acclaimed productions. Official Site
HBO Shows Hollywood films and HBO Original series Official Site
Cinemax Shows action and suspense movies. Official Site

The HBO multiplex channels are divided into special packages. In Hong Kong, now TV's package is HBO/MAX PAK Premium while in the Philippines, SkyCable Platinum's package is THE HBO PAK. In Indonesia, First Media's package is HBO MAX PAK

[edit] Studios

HBO brings top blockbuster movies to Asia first through exclusive output licensing deals with the major Hollywood studios - Columbia/TriStar, Paramount (DreamWorks), Universal and Warner Bros. HBO also licenses movies from major independent distributors such as Castle Rock, Focus Features, Franchise, Morgan Creek, New Line, Paramount Classics, Picturehouse, Screen Gems, Sony Picture Classics, Village Roadshow and Warner Independent Pictures.

Also note that some of the movies from Universal Studios and Columbia Pictures/TriStar Pictures after being shown many times on HBO and its sister channels will be premiered on Star Movies and AXN.

[edit] Limitations

  • Air old movies:

Viewers accustomed to the programs available in the US will find that the bulk of movies shown on HBO Asia are fairly old. They usually spend more percent to air old movies from 1994–1998, or even from the 1980s. In USA, HBO is the number one movie channel, but in Asia, HBO wasn't a number one movie channel in all Asian countries and territories. HBO is the biggest movie network in Vietnam, Thailand, Hong Kong, Singapore, Taiwan. However, in India and South Asia, Malaysia, this title belongs to Star Movies.

  • Flash screen:

HBO adds a flash screen to advertise for it after showing movies in prime time at night. This makes viewers hardly catch the casts' names.

  • Family channels effects:

Since HBO adds two new channels: HBO Hits and HBO Family. Plus with Cinemax and HBO Signature, the new movies which only have on HBO in that month have been reduced. New movies air on HBO every month, not only most old but also most taken from its family channels. Viewers who have enough five channels will see that movies are repeated from this channel to other channel in its family.

[edit] Availability

[edit] Gallery

Screenshot of HBO Asia with the new station ID (2008)

Screenshot of HBO South Asia (HBO India) with the new station ID (2008)

A screenshot of HBO Pakistan

[edit] See also

[edit] Links

Languages