Q 01/05

What do the letters HBO stand for?

A) Home Box Office

B) Home Broadcasting Organization

C) Hollywood Box Office

D) Home Broadcast Outlet

Answer · why

A) Home Box Office

HBO stands for Home Box Office, a name chosen to suggest a box-office ticket to first-run movies and live events you could watch at home.

Q 02/05

In what year did HBO launch?

A) 1968

B) 1972

C) 1969

D) 1965

Answer · why

B) 1972

HBO launched in 1972, going live on the evening of November 8 to a single small cable system in northeastern Pennsylvania.

Q 03/05

What was HBO's very first broadcast?

A) A boxing match at Madison Square Garden

B) The film The Godfather

C) An NHL game between the Rangers and Canucks

D) A Frank Sinatra concert

Answer · why

C) An NHL game between the Rangers and Canucks

An NHL game between the Rangers and Canucks, played at Madison Square Garden, opened HBO's first night; the 1971 film Sometimes a Great Notion followe...

Q 04/05

Roughly how many subscribers received HBO's first-night broadcast?

A) 3,650

B) 36,500

C) 1,000

D) 365

Answer · why

D) 365

Roughly 365 subscribers, all on one Service Electric cable system in northeastern Pennsylvania, received HBO's first night of programming.

Q 05/05

Which cable executive came up with the idea for HBO while on a family vacation aboard the QE2?

A) Charles Dolan

B) Ted Turner

C) John Malone

D) Gerald Levin

Answer · why

A) Charles Dolan

Charles Dolan, whose Sterling Manhattan Cable was losing money, sketched the pay-TV idea on a 1971 ocean voyage and persuaded Time Inc. to keep backin...