This was also supported by diversification into original productions for broadcast television from , international film subscription services, and investments in basic cable network The Comedy Channel, later rebranded as Comedy Central.
Raising budgets and attracting star-names to productions with provocative subject matter, award-winning films such as The Josephine Baker Story Gibson and And the Band Played On Spottsiwoode added further distinction. Jones a also cites the adaptation of late-night chat show formats to the network in this period, notably represented by Dennis Miller Live However, Rogers et al and others cite an ongoing negotiation of explicit content over quality experimentation.
For David Andrews and Karen Backstein , modifying soft-core erotic programming also became a key tactic for Showtime in the early s, most notably through series such as The Red Shoe Diaries In this context, Anderson emphasises that despite some advances, HBO was still primarily associated with film exhibition rather than quality original programming by the mids Anderson Rogers et al suggest that HBO shifted away from an eclectic monthly service towards establishing identification and loyalty through enormous investment in weekly, creator-led quality series alongside regular exhibition of films, sports and other programming Rogers et al Led by prison drama Oz and followed by Sex and the City from , the particular success of The Sopranos is used here to suggest a conversion of explicit content into quality television trends for cinematic production values and complex narratives, boosted by larger than average budgets and creative freedoms for producers Rogers et al Extensive responses to HBO as quality television view this adaptation process as specialising previous primetime format trends around a more exclusively marketed brand, and can be discussed in more detail later in the thesis.
At the same time, competition for ratings and brand distinction for networks saw broadcasters and cable channels find success with unscripted reality programming and game-show formats such as American Idol FOX, , while continuing to rely on more traditional formats. The contemporary use of quality and other niche programming to brand networks and attract key demographics has been widely focused through HBO as a leading case study for negotiating cultural distinction for television.
In this way, HBO works to position itself as an essential brand, where a regular subscription could provide audiences with an exclusive cultural experience. Negotiating televisual distinction as part of broader popular culture has informed both ongoing aesthetic and cultural discussions of quality television,9 as well as debates over how far the medium has been transformed by technology in the s. This has led to extensive interest in how successful film and television franchises have intensified trans-media storytelling and marketing to engage a range of audiences.
Moreover, the need to reinforce brand loyalty has encouraged increased reliance on ephemeral, ancillary materials such as website content, making-of segments and DVD bonus features to reinforce interaction with properties and platforms. Broader debates and synopsis of key programming strategies, individual quality series and fan cultures from this era can also be found in Michael Hammond and Luzy Mazdons eds The Contemporary Television Series, Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.
Moreover, HBO looked to widen its reputation for quality programming through partnerships for theatrical distribution with conglomerate-owned specialty distributors Carolyn Anderson ; Heller , Perren b.
This is typically used to present HBO as a crucial prototype for television practices for managing content across old and new platforms by the end of the decade.
This became particularly crucial for the conglomerate after a problematic merger with internet provider AOL in , reinforcing the need for brand loyalty and selective synergy Grainge Rogers et al 25 and Polan suggest here that as new niche markets open up and subscriber growth slows, the HBO network will become less significant compared to brand management through high-quality programs.
This innovation has however been used to form broader criticisms of HBO as one element in the wider corporate economy of Time Warner. For cultural studies and communications scholars such as Toby Miller, Robert McChesney and Ben Bagdikian, the global media industries represent anti-competitive, exploitative and un-democratic institutions, with branding as one way of obscuring more cynical practices of ownership.
The branding relationship between top-down corporate management and audiences is viewed here as a highly unbalanced loyalty, eradicating genuine difference in favour of superficially-defined niche markets. This has been developed by McCabe and Akass , who suggest that HBO downplayed the success of its explicit content by emphasising quality, and exploited a crossover gap in the broadcast market for adult-themed drama.
For Anderson, this is akin to a gated community, enforcing economic differences over content to regulate the meaning of quality for television Anderson Anderson also ties this into wider theories of the blurred relationship between cultural and economic distinction in the late 20th century made by Pierre Bourdieu, with social status measured by conspicuous consumption Anderson This has been developed by Toby Miller in his monograph Cultural citizenship: cosmopolitanism, consumerism, and television in a neoliberal age, where he links exclusive brand relationships for television networks to cultural stratification.
With distinction measured by cosmopolitan spending patterns, Miller has argued that this reinforces neoliberal economies of self-interest and diversity through competition, limiting more democratic media participation Miller The latter approach to exploring niche television brands as negotiating relationships between corporate values and diverse audiences has been widely rehearsed across television, communications and cultural studies.
The early use of the network as a case study for cable exhibition by film and media scholars in the late s and early s was built on in the early s by close analysis of quality programs and institutional overviews. Despite this extensive coverage, there are however important gaps in scholarship on the network that need to be addressed. He identifies how early anecdotal accounts by Mair , and uses as a case study by Hilmes and others have only been partially expanded by later accounts to frame a contemporary interest in quality programs and dynamic brand management since the mids.
One explanation for this could be that most institutional histories of HBO still function as introductions, or general context for close analysis of individual series as accessible to multi-disciplinary interpretation.
Moreover, while article-length studies by Johnson or Jaramillo of HBO as a case study for network and program branding identify key issues and practices, they compensate for scope by engaging in general debates about media convergence and corporate power.
The value of these approaches is arguably in their accessibility, negotiating questions over the future of television and engagement between audiences, brands and ownership within familiar program examples. Moreover, this allows for wide-ranging studies of individual programs as innovative media franchises beyond single network contexts, an approach taken to series such as Lost Pearson ed As Pepper highlights though, one of the limitations of this approach is that institutional specificity or general perspectives on contemporary innovations tends to become marginalised.
This is an understandable sacrifice in terms of commercial appeal for publication, with extensive, chronological and archival histories providing vital, but more specialist value in examining more subtle differences in context and precedent. These can also be viewed though against a series of dissertations and monographs on major institutions, branding and media convergence by emerging scholars since Trendle from the s to the s.
This approach can also be aligned with a recent dissertation by Jason Scott into the management of newspaper syndicate characters into films and other media from to as offering extensive precedent for current franchising tactics.
New scholarship has similarly promoted ongoing re-assessment of the history of key institutions to better contextualise their current branding success across media platforms. On a wider level, the need for archive-led historical research into precedent for current industry practices has been proposed by the edited collection Convergence Media History Staiger, Hake eds This has in turn overlapped with recent efforts to widen the historical scope of new media strategies, which has notably included histories of industrial repetition by Derek Kompare , and recurring caution by John Caldwell ; ; ; over losing sight of the durability of old media practices for understanding contemporary branding and specific institutions.
Aside from a few brief notes on scheduling by Gomery and Andrews , this also lacks the kind of detailed analysis of basic cable exhibition made by Mullen This crucially overlooked connection can also be tied to some recent historical scholarship on the links between publishing and cable. Chapter One of my thesis, covering , will expand on these links to suggest longer-term institutional links between HBO and Time.
It will also argue that these influences shaped the development of the early subscription service into a stable monthly format, dictated by overall value rather than individual programs. This can be understood through a history of negotiations between exceptional content and the offsetting of risk through exhibition and packaging formats.
Kompare suggests that 19th and early 20th century literary and music publishing established conventions for recycling copyrighted properties and libraries while aggregating audiences through mass and niche outlets, as well as subscription services.
Proposing a model of subscriber aggregation, where a range of demographics could be cross-promoted to enhance specialist and wider subscription value, connections can be made with the wider growth of cable network branding in the period made by Mullen and others.
A combination of institutional exclusivity and distinctive exhibition can be used here to again emphasise clearer degrees of difference from rivals such as Showtime, while incorporating discussions of Cinemax.
From Chapter Three onwards, I will examine how these Time-era influences and subscriber aggregation underpinned growing adjustments to contemporary brand management across platforms as part of Time Warner. First analysing the aftermath of the Time Warner deal from to , this will discuss how HBO both adapted to industry trends for network and program branding, while retaining a focus on aggregating audiences within stable exhibition and production cycles. Moreover, an emphasis on HBO as a pioneering television network for managing branded content across new digital platforms and global distribution beyond the subscriber service can be re-oriented around adaptations to older economies and some further tensions over institutional exclusivity from rivals.
Re-contextualising accounts of contemporary brand management and quality television programming can again be used to support historical arguments for significant institutional and industrial continuities in the s and s. However, Caldwell also emphasises branding negotiations between older network and exhibition strategies for aggregate platforms. Lotz also links her argument to wider new media theories by Christopher Anderson II for structuring the flow of digital media content.
On one hand, the value of this research is to better understand institutional and industrial continuities through extensive archival research, building off trends for revisionist media histories. Some caution over scope and the use of archives can however be made. Michele Hilmes has suggested that while single studies of television networks are valuable, they also have to negotiate excessive programming and archival sources, particularly if official records are not available.
My primary research developed chronological chapters from Variety and The Hollywood Reporter, as well as newspapers, overlooked institutional histories of Time, online archived HBO on-air promotions, magazine advertisements, and a broad selection of programming than previous histories.
The particular reliance on trade papers to piece together a critical chronology can however produce problems, with Perren acknowledging that articles and interviews tend to combine self-promotion with a short-sighted approach to historical precedent Perren a: In this context, my thesis aims to provide a more comprehensive history of HBO, but one that maps out the development of particular strategies to inform wider debates.
More specifically, by focusing on subscriber aggregation as a longer-term practice, more specific contributions can be made to general discussions of brand management taken by existing accounts. When dealing with the process of brand management, my focus is again on top-down strategies for coordinating and extending consistent format value against ongoing demands for distinction and subscriber satisfaction.
While others identify this value through limited case studies and generalising discussions of quality marketing and corporate differentiation within Time Warner, I focus on the stability of the overall subscriber service and its extension of a Time Inc. Focusing on subscriber aggregation allows us to better refine the strategies that go into branding a network and programs, while viewing this as part of variations on longer-term trends for format management around packaging and licensing of branded content.
My intention is again to align with institutional histories that provide clearer contexts for interpretation and criticism. These kinds of approaches are already well-represented in existing studies of the network. Continuities for aggregating subscribers, building from publishing influences, provide long-term anchors for ongoing brand management.
This innovation as an outlet has been used to discuss some limited options over original programming, providing precedent through stand-up comedy and boxing for a later, middlebrow brand identity. This understanding of HBO as a subscription aggregator can be used to shape further continuities within exclusive Time ownership into the s. This was joined by experimentation in drama, educational and variety formats. At the same time, CBS adapted successful radio serial and soap opera formats in building affiliate and sponsor support Boddy b: 65 , most notably through quiz shows and experiments with filmed sitcoms Boddy b: With marginal independent producers having predominantly supplied low-cost material to local stations to fill scheduling hours from the late s Anderson , primetime precedent for off-network syndication was achieved by the independent, but Hollywood-rooted production of filmed sitcoms such as I Love Lucy CBS, by the mid s.
Television also became an attractive site for distributing studio film libraries, beginning with independent distributors and expanding to the major studios by the mids. This aligned with shifts from network sponsorship to magazine-style spot advertising. Licensing half-hour comedy and hour-long drama formats became crucial to establishing popularity for later sales to network affiliates, independent stations and worldwide markets.
Adapting studio-era audience differentiation towards more specific mass and niche demographics, increased investments in the music industry joined to the promotion of new theatrical technologies to distinguish higher-budget productions. Studio stability was tested by a recession in the late s that saw key majors absorbed into larger conglomerates mixing entertainment and non-entertainment assets.
Conglomerates gained studios with heavy debts but investment potential for back-catalogues of features, television production and Hollywood real estate. In doing so, the potential to establish value from film libraries for television and cross-promotion of branded media properties was developed for the s.
The film industry also however attempted to respond to the rise of a high-spending baby boomer audience and social and political unrest. While this blockbuster-led boom will be returned to later in the chapter, demographic shifts and targeted marketing also crossed into broadcasting during the period. With FCC regulations establishing public service alternative PBS in and the Financial Syndication and Prime Time Access rulings in and , the major three networks lost lucrative syndication shares.
The regulations also restricted the amount of network programming in primetime station schedules to encourage Sheldon Hall and Steve Neale Epic, Spectacles and Blockbusters, Detroit, Michigan: Wayne State University Press, , While aiming to break up a broadcast television monopoly, the first years of the rulings instead produced mixed results.
Independent syndicators and Hollywood studios more often fed scheduling gaps with broadly-targeting programming, low-cost game and chat shows, while widening markets for reruns. Gomery ; and Gitlin identify the growth of the format by the mids as a response to a shortage of theatrical films and production licensing disputes.
The compromise became the commissioning of low-budget, B-level productions from studios and independents for first-run and later domestic and international syndication. Limited diversification around a reinforcement of broadcast and Hollywood interdependence was joined by the mids by breakthroughs in cable and pay cable. This dependence was reinforced in by conglomerate investment in cable distribution and new channels, with Warner Communications establishing a Warner Cable division in By contrast, pay cable and pay television offered eclectic but increasingly attractive options for competing with advertising-supported broadcasting for selling varied individual and collective packages to homes.
Opportunities to develop a long-term future for pay television were enhanced by a Fourth Report and Order by the FCC that agreed commercial licenses for subscription services. While protecting existing distribution and broadcast exhibition interests, by approximately forty-five regional services delivering varied cable, broadcast packages and PPV programming to homes and MSOs were available nationwide Edgerton a: 1.
Time Inc. Building from pay cable experimentation with uncut films and sports on Sterling Cable, Mullen notes how Dolan proposed a pay venture as The Green Channel to Time between and Mullen With pay cable restrictions in place in Manhattan, HBO instead launched as a monthly fee microwave service to viewers in the Pennsylvania town of Wilkes-Barre on November 8th.
However, from to the fledgling serviced struggled to build long-term appeal. The priority became to reduce churn, or subscribers signing up and cancelling the channel.
Surveying spikes and declines in Wilkes-Barre and neighbouring Pennsylvania townships, Mair explains slow growth through poor marketing by still primarily local engineers Mair This expanded to four states and thirty-six microwave linked systems by the end of the year Mullen During its early months, HBO had run a four hour schedule of two films a night and a sporting event from Madison Square Garden Miller, Kim , before expanding to between four and seven and a half daily hours in and of heavily rotated titles.
Problems remained though in breaking Hollywood and broadcast resistance to licensing high-profile films to pay cable. With output primarily restricted to B movie and older, obscure titles, HBO and Time had launched a court injunction against the regulations in This also expanded to a low-cost range of specialist sports such as gymnastics, wrestling and surfing Miller, Kim This began in March with coverage of the Pennsylvania Polka Festival, as well as roller derbies and cow fairs.
This promoted quality control in producing upscale journalism with a personality-driven entertainment style for subscription and retail distribution. By the end of the s Time had broadened its publishing label with the weekly photo-journalism focused Life Leadership from under CEO Andrew Heiskell added new lifestyle titles such as Fortune, while raising political and celebrity coverage in Time by Prendergast; Colvin By contrast, Life could not survive falling circulation, and was closed the same year.
New strategies in the period looked to global publishing and media cross-promotion, but experienced some recurring tensions over collaboration and exclusivity. International problems were later solved as the publisher rebranded its unsuccessful Time Atlantic title as Time Europe. Coordinated more closely with the 28 For detailed histories of Time Inc. Elson Time Inc. Demands for diversification without sacrificing corporate autonomy also affected ventures into audio-visual media.
Time had diversified the magazine brand as early as the s, entering into radio and theatrical deals to produce March of Time newsreels. From the early s Time also began to purchase broadcast radio and television stations in the US and overseas, and created the Time-Life Broadcast division in to handle television interests.
Moreover, Time consolidated publishing strengths by entering into book distribution and mail-order catalogues. However, attempted investments in broadcast television and film struggled to find consistent success. On the one hand, the early s saw Life act as a base for producing syndicated pilots and documentaries as stand-alone embodiments of Time journalistic quality.
From however attempts to maintain crossovers with verite Vietnam specials struggled to find buyers Prendergast; Colvin Collaborative problems also extended to investments in studio production.
An alternative effort to enter into film production and distribution then resulted in the creation of Time-Life Films in Investments in HBO by , after cutting back on broadcast stations and cable distribution, arguably provided an ideal site to reinforce publishing and subscription strengths.
Richard Munro briefly took control of the channel Mair 8 , while in late its marketer Bill Myers helped coordinate the successful push through Mair A gradual focus on diverse sports programming by can be tied here to Sports Illustrated crossovers, providing a basis for targeting the same younger male audiences. Again, Kompare argues that publishing provided a basis for later media industry reliance on negotiating distinctive content into linked subscription, retail and rental formats.
This offered some precedent for how broadcast television and other non-theatrical sites could add to the circulation of film and other media archives, while encouraging the exploitation of copyrighted libraries by the early s Kompare 55; This was soon followed by the Copyright Act, relaxing retransmission and boosting nationwide franchising and system construction alongside falling satellite costs Mullen Here WTBS relied on off- network reruns, Hollywood theatrical films, cartoons and live sports to establish a regular schedule of familiar programming.
Powered by this rapidly expanding cable market, HBO reached , subscribers by June Mullen This helped generate a first profit by October , while eclipsing magazine revenues as cable distribution coordinated with nationwide brand marketing Mair The success of Jaws in promoting blockbuster features through theatrical box office revenue and suitability for cross-promotion with tie-ins, merchandise and later sequels provided a template that was continued by the success of Star Wars George Lucas Cable offered to provisionally extend ancillary revenues for studio distribution, and was provisionally joined from by the patenting of commercial videotape by electronics manufacturers Sony and Betamax and VCR players.
With Time establishing a Video Group in to coordinate HBO and cable distribution, efforts were made to stabilise management and reach licensing deals with the studios. Promoting Levin to chairman and CEO and Nick Nicholas to president and chief operations officer, the latter looked to hire from within the magazine division. By HBO faced demands for diversifying supply, with Furst agreeing a pre-buy agreement with Columbia for exclusive rights to future titles in exchange for co-financing Mullen In Time also acquired a stake in independent production company Talent Associates in an attempt to boost theatrical distribution Prendergast; Colvin By the September satellite launch this had included extending sports coverage to non- exclusive Wimbledon tennis coverage, and deals with syndicators.
Targeting prestige programming also led here to the acquisition of rerun rights to cancelled CBS drama Beacon Hill an unsuccessful variation on quality programming. A November Variety survey had identified the average HBO subscriber as a younger, affluent adult male with higher income and education than the average broadcast viewer, as well as an early media adopter Variety Nov 16 Here Furst crucially turned to magazine influences for measuring subscriber feedback for experiments, introducing Total Subscriber Satisfaction Reports TSS from Time in Offering demographic break- downs of the monthly service Prendergast; Colvin , TSS represented a partial solution to the advantages and problems of the subscriber model.
Drawing on magazine and subscription precedent for measuring non-linear sampling and re- sampling of a monthly service, reports offered to break down demographic trends and measure aggregate audience satisfaction.
This could be used to identify potential compatibility between viewing and re-viewing patterns, improving the month-to-month decision to alter the format mix of the monthly selection of titles. Subscriber format management in this case could encourage brand consistency through a specialist exhibition format, providing an infrastructure for offsetting the risk of adding new programs that could appeal to a variety of subscribers.
From to experiments to find formats that could attract the ideal upscale male subscriber noted in the Variety survey, while retaining appeals to an expanding audience can be demonstrated by the production of comedy and variety specials. This represented a monthly series of specials recording live comedy performances on campuses and nightclubs across America. In Furst developed a second year of specials, and hired young talent agent Michael Fuchs to produce the series.
These restrictions had been foregrounded by the primetime season, encouraging more family-oriented shows, and investment in internationally co- produced miniseries such as Roots for gaining prestige Gomery However, it has also been criticised as an example of early middlebrow tendencies between quality marketing and explicit content. However, On Location and the success of adult content in a subscription channel setting can be more specifically linked into Time concerns over exhibition.
This in turn crossed over into new magazine ventures for the publisher. In the publisher had launched People, a magazine focusing on celebrity, lifestyle and current affairs that differentiated itself from other Time titles through more sensational content.
In this context, People was joined in the period by less-successful efforts by Time to focus on lifestyle and the entertainment industry for a younger boomer generation, from personal finance magazine Money to short-lived experiment View, a mix of film and television journalism Prendergast; Colvin Marketing on broadcasting television, People pushed the Time brand to new limits. In mid Cox transferred to HBO, becoming head of affiliate relations and cable operators, with responsibility for promoting the subscription package to operators and viewers Mair His beloved troupe of sidekicks are: Walter the Grumpy Retiree, Ached the Dead Terrorist, the beer-fueled redneck Bubba J, the manic purple creature Peanut, the spicy pepper from south of the border Jose Jalapeno and Little Jeff, a mini-version of the ringmaster himself.
The famed comedian has literally been all over the map, visiting five continents and twelve countries including the UK, South Africa, Australia, the Middle East, and Asia where he continuously performed to sold-out arenas. Dunham has carved a unique corner in the comedy world that's as funny as it is popular. Visit: www. Lubbock, TX Skip to content. Local Listings. Notify me of new comments via email. Notify me of new posts via email. Menu Skip to content Search.
Search for:. Share this: Twitter Facebook Pinterest. Like this: Like Loading Ticketing for such shows was handled by third parties not affiliated with the Fox Theater Foundation. At no time did the Fox Theater Foundation or any of its Board of Directors ever receive any ticket proceeds to be paid to Icon by such third parties for the subject shows. It should also be noted that the Fox Theater has also not received payment for the venue and services provided during both of the Jeff Dunham shows.
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