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Television channel
HBO Europe
Broadcast area
Hungary, Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Romania, Bulgaria, Croatia, Slovenia, Serbia, Montenegro, Bosnia and Herzegovina, North Macedonia, Moldova, Portugal, Spain, Finland, Sweden, Denmark, Norway
HBO Max has replaced HBO GO in Europe. It was launched in Hungary, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Romania, Bulgaria, Croatia, Slovenia, Serbia, Montenegro, Bosnia and Herzegovina, North Macedonia, Moldova, Portugal and Poland on March 8, 2022,[1] while in Spain, Norway, Denmark, Finland and Sweden, it was launched on October 26, 2021.[2]
History
The first channel was launched in Hungary on September 28, 1991.[3] This was followed in 1994 by the launch in Czech Republic,[4] founding HBO Europe's predecessor under the name HBO Central Europe. In 1995, Walt Disney entered in joint-venture, and in 1996 it was launched in Poland (October 17, 1996),[5][6] Slovakia (1997), Romania (1998), Moldova (1999), Bulgaria (2002), Croatia, Slovenia (2004),[3] Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro (2006), and North Macedonia (2009).
On September 15, 2003, a new premium channel HBO 2 was launched as the sister channel of HBO.[7] In November 2005, Cinemax and Cinemax 2 started to broadcast, while in 2007 a third channel named HBO Comedy was introduced as well.[8][9]
Initially HBO Europe was co-owned by HBO, Sony Pictures Entertainment and The Walt Disney Company, but from January 29, 2010 Home Box Office acquired complete ownership in its Central European feeds.[10] Upon the launch of HBO in the Netherlands, HBO Central Europe was renamed HBO Europe in 2012. In 2011 HBO entered the market of streaming services with launching HBO Go's localized Central European version. Following HBO Go's launch, in 2012 HBO Nordic was launched in Sweden, Norway, Denmark and Finland, the first countries where HBO introduced only streaming services without any linear television channels. It was followed by the launch of HBO España in 2016 (the Dutch version was closed in the same year) and HBO Portugal in 2019, both of them being VOD-only services.
Operations
Television channels
HBO Europe owns premium film channels in its Central European operating area. HBO serves as the flagship channel of the portfolio, while HBO2's programming consists of mainly family-friendly content. Former comedy channel HBO Comedy was rebranded in 2016 as HBO3, a premium channel focusing on television series. Cinemax serves as a mainstream cinema channel, while Cinemax 2 offers art films.
HBO
HBO 2
HBO 3 (known as HBO Comedy from 2007–2016)
Cinemax
Cinemax 2
Streaming services
HBO Europe owns streaming services throughout Europe. It has been operating services branded as HBO Go in Central European countries since 2011. Localized subtitles are available in Hungarian, Czech, Romanian, Bulgarian, Croatian, Polish, Serbian, Slovak, Slovenian and Macedonian. Localized dubbing and voiceover feeds are available in Hungarian, Czech and Polish usually a week after an original series' episode premieres. HBO Go is the leading streaming service in all of the countries in which it operates - as of August, 2019, it has 5.5 million subscribers throughout Central Europe. Its platform is developed in Budapest.
HBO was launched as a VOD-only brand in Sweden, Denmark, Norway and Finland as HBO Nordic and in Spain as HBO España. Meanwhile, HBO Go is developed in Budapest, Nordic and España services are headquartered in Stockholm.
On August 15, 2012, HBO announced plans to launch HBO Nordic, a multiplatform video distribution service serving Norway, Denmark, Sweden and Finland that was created through a joint venture with Parsifal International.[11][12] The video on demand service launched in December 2012. HBO programming also airs in Iceland on Stöð 2.[13] In Spain, HBO programs were previously broadcast on pay television service Canal+, since 2011.[14] In 2016, during the discontinuation of the Canal+ branding in Spain, HBO launched a standalone streaming service called HBO España, which is the Spanish equivalent of HBO Now and HBO Nordic. HBO Europe had announced on multiple occasions that they were not aware that they were going to replace their current service with HBO Max, nor would their rates be increased.[15] However, in December 2020, the head of HBO Max, Andy Forssell, revealed that all HBO services in Europe, including HBO España and HBO Nordic, would be replaced by HBO Max. On October 26, 2021, HBO Max was launched in the Nordics (excluding Iceland) and Spain.[16]
In 2019, HBO's streaming service was also introduced in Portugal as HBO Portugal. Despite the fact that it is not branded as HBO Go, it uses the Central European platform.
In the 2010s, HBO Europe launched the streaming service HBO Go in 13 countries in Central and Eastern Europe. HBO programs in Portugal were previously broadcast on premium television channel TVSéries from the services of TVCine, since 2015. In 2019, less than a year before the discontinuation of TVSéries, HBO Europe launched a standalone streaming service called HBO Portugal. Similar to the Nordics and Spain, HBO Max was launched in Portugal[17] and Central and Eastern Europe on March 8, 2022,[18] replacing HBO Go and HBO Portugal.
HBO Europe is also one of the largest producer companies for television in Central and Eastern Europe, operating HBO Europe Original Programming Ltd., headquartered in London, producing several local original scripted programming and series based on licensed formats.
Licensed formats include BeTipul (Bez tajemnic, Terapie, Terápia), Small Time Gangster (Umbre), Mammon (Mamon, The Pact) and When Shall We Kiss? (Társas játék, Rămâi cu mine, Až po uši).
^Kjartansson, Kjartan Atli (3 December 2014). "Stöð 2 í samstarf við HBO". Vísir (in Icelandic). Archived from the original on 21 May 2022. Retrieved 10 March 2022.
