NEW YORK -- Time Warner Inc. and United Communications International of Denver said Monday they have started a new premium television service called HBO in Hungary.
Arthur Barron, chairman of Time Warner International, Mark Schneider, president of United Communications, and Gary Bryson, president of U S WEST Cable Communications, made the announcement.
A company operating cable systems internationally, United Communications is a partnership of United International Holdings, a Denver firm operating cable systems in Europe, and U S West, a Denver regional telephone company.
The Hungarian HBO was launched Sept. 28 and the pay-TV service initially has six hours a day of film programming, from about 6 p.m. to midnight, seven days a week. HBO's schedule will have Hungarian, European and American films, with all either dubbed or subtitled in Hungarian.
The new service has completed a series of program agreements including long-term licensing agreements with two major Hollywood studios: Warner Bros. and 20th Century Fox.
HBO is now being marketed to more than 140,000 basic cable subscribers in five cities -- Debrecen, Pecs and Dunaujvaros, Veszprem and Budapest -- with plans to reach additional cities by the end of the year.
Home Box Office Inc., the cable programming and marketing subsidiary of Time Warner, provides two 24-hour premium television services, HBO and Cinemax, throughout the United States, Puerto Rico, Guam and the U. S. Virgin Islands.
Home Box Office Inc. serves nearly 24 million U.S. pay-cable subscribers and generated $1.3 billion in revenues in 1990.
