Home Box Office announced that it has acquired 100% 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.
“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,” said Simon Sutton, president, Programming Distribution & International, in a statement. “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.”
HBO Central Europe will continue have access to ongoing output deals with major Hollywood studios including Warner Bros., Disney and Sony among others, as well as HBO 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 HD, 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.
