| MUMBAI:
HBO has taken a 100 per cent ownership in its Central European joint venture company,
HBO Central Europe. Previously,
HBO Central Europe was jointly held under an equity structure by subsidiaries
of HBO, Sony Pictures Entertainment and The Walt Disney Company.
HBO
president programming distribution and international Simon Sutton says, "Over
the past few years, HBO has moved from a series of minority equity positions to
majority ownership of all of its international joint ventures. We believe HBO
Asia, HBO Latin America and now HBO Central Europe are strong businesses that
are well positioned to take advantage of the expanding marketplace." Subscribers
of HBO in Central Europe will continue to see the latest and biggest blockbuster
hits from the ongoing output deals with major Hollywood studios including Warner
Bros, Disney and Sony among others, as well as HBO award-winning original programming
and local, original programming developed and produced by HBO Central Europe.
In addition
to the primary HBO and Cinemax linear programming services, which are available
in standard and high definition, HBO Central Europe offers multiplex services
including HBO2, HBO Comedy and Cinemax 2. An
SVOD service, HBO Digital, is now available in a number of markets. HBO Central
Europe serves 12 countries in the region: Poland, the Czech Republic, the Slovak
Republic, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, Slovenia, Croatia, Moldova, Montenegro,
Serbia and Macedonia. | 
