{"id":2798,"date":"2010-07-29T11:14:34","date_gmt":"2010-07-29T11:14:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dev.adambowie.com\/2010\/07\/skys_hbo_deal\/"},"modified":"2010-07-29T11:14:34","modified_gmt":"2010-07-29T11:14:34","slug":"skys_hbo_deal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dev.adambowie.com\/blog\/2010\/07\/skys_hbo_deal\/","title":{"rendered":"Sky’s HBO Deal"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sky has completed a £150m deal<\/a> for exclusive rights to all HBO’s back catalogue and future programming for the next five years. There’s a certain irony that over the years various Sky One channel controllers have claimed that they’re going to make Sky One the UK’s version of HBO. I’ve pooh-poohed that in the past<\/a>, but I suppose this is one way that Sky can become HBO – buy everything they make!
\nCue lots of howling and anguish as viewers (on Media Guardian at least) who are used to seeing their favourite HBO shows on other channels potentially disappearing from their screens. While there are implications for stations like Channel 4, which has done well from True Blood and Curb Your Enthusiasm, many of those HBO shows air on another Murdoch owned channel in the UK – FX [Update: FX retains<\/a> the rights to True Blood as well as the very funny Eastbound & Down].
\nIn reality, as some sager Guardian commenters have mentioned, the reality is that Sky has done a deal for a great quantity of quality back catalogue programming for their on-demand service. I’m not sure if another UK broadcaster already had dibs on Treme – the New Orleans set David Simon series that has just finished its first series in the US. There’s no mention of that in the coverage or the Sky press release<\/a>. So I suspect that another broadcaster has already done the deal in the UK for that<\/strike> [Update: Nope. Sky has got the rights to Treme according to Broadcast<\/a> (via The Medium Is Not Enough<\/a>)]. Instead, most of the coverage is about another forthcoming HBO biggie – Boardwalk Empire – which comes from Martin Scorcese and does look good.
\nThe other really interesting show that Sky’s got its hands on is Game of Thrones based on the popular (although unread by me) George RR Martin fantasy novels. That series has a largely British cast and is being shot in Northern Ireland.
\nIn all the shock and distain about the way this deal has been done, and what it means to everyone, it’s worth pointing out that not every single one<\/I> of your favourite US shows is actually from HBO.
\nHBO does have:
\nTreme (the new yet-to-air-in-the-UK series from David “The Wire” Simon)
\nTrue Blood
\nCurb Your Enthusiasm
\nBoardwalk Empire (the new Scorcese series that’s eagerly awaited)
\nEastbound & Down
\nBored to Death (has this found a UK home previously)
\nEntourage
\nHung
\nThe Pacific (which Sky showed on a movie channel)
\nLuck
\nGame of Thrones (eagerly awaited by fans of novels, and currently shooting in Northern Ireland)<\/em>
\nAnd of course, there’s there full back-catalogue.
\nBut plenty of other notable shows on other premium or semi-premium US channels. They’re commonly misconceived to be “HBO” shows when they’re not. The following lists are in no way comprehensive.
\nShowtime has:
\nCalifornication
\nDexter
\nNurse Jackie
\nThe Tudors
\nWeeds
\nUnited States of Tara
\nThe L Word <\/em>
\nStarz (now run by ex-HBO president Chris Albrecht) has:
\nSpartacus: Blood and Sand (I did say “notable”, and not “good”)
\nPillars of the Earth (not actually commissioned by them though)
\nCamelot (forthcoming reimagining of Arthurian legend)
\nTorchwood (co-production with the BBC of course)<\/em>
\nAMC has:
\nMad Men
\nBreaking Bad
\nRubicon (forthcoming spy series)
\nThe Walking Dead (based on the zombie comics)
\nThe Prisoner (made with ITV)<\/em>
\nTNT has:
\nLeverage
\nSouthland (picked up from NBC and now running on More4)
\nThe Closer<\/em>
\nUSA Network has:
\nWhite Collar
\nBurn Notice
\nCovert Affairs (new spy series that’s not at all like Alias, oh no)
\nPsych<\/em>
\nFX has:
\nJustified (Just finished on Five USA last night and I’ve not seen the last episode yet. It’s a fantastic series)
\nRescue Me (also excellent)
\nNip\/Tuck
\nSons of Anarchy<\/em>
\nDirecTV has:
\nFriday Night Lights (in co-production deal with NBC)
\nDamages (picked up from FX)<\/em>
\nAnd this list doesn’t include the major networks, or channels like SyFy (sic). I wouldn’t claim for a second that every one of these shows is as good as the best of what HBO does. But it’s a good mix, and there are some absolute gems in there. And HBO has nothing to do with them.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sky has completed a £150m deal for exclusive rights to all HBO’s back catalogue and future programming for the next five years. There’s a certain irony that over the years various Sky One channel controllers have claimed that they’re going to make Sky One the UK’s version of HBO. I’ve pooh-poohed that in the past, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dev.adambowie.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2798"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dev.adambowie.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dev.adambowie.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dev.adambowie.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dev.adambowie.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2798"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dev.adambowie.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2798\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dev.adambowie.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2798"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dev.adambowie.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2798"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dev.adambowie.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2798"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}