HBO Europe’s original programming in the era of streaming wars

Abstract

HBO Europe (HBO Central Europe’s pre-2012 incarnation) opened its office in Budapest in 1991. It then set up 14 national branches. Four of them (Budapest, Prague, Warsaw, and Bucharest) established original-programming departments responsible for supplying localized content to the HBO cable and on-demand services, positioning HBO᾽s brand in the region. Since HBO Europe recruited experienced UK producer Antony Root as VP of Original Programming, a three-tier production strategy has emerged. HBO Europe started producing licensed TV series, adapted for each of the four countries. The aim was to test local markets and prepare for bigger-budget original series and event miniseries. Nurturing regional talent and US-style development practices was crucial to maintaining the local content’s cultural specificities while enhancing its quality. A critical reading shows how this discourse on creative freedom, localization, and quality serves branding purposes and fits in with HBO᾽s strategy to pre-empt competition from Netflix and other OTTs. Based on in-depth interviews with executives, producers, and writers from Prague, Warsaw, and Budapest, the chapter analyses the increasingly complex and tense relationships between HBO and the traditionally strong PSB networks.