Short answers, pulled from the story.
HBO launched at 7:30 p.m. Eastern Time on the 8th of November 1972, with its first broadcast being an NHL game between the New York Rangers and the Vancouver Canucks. It was founded by cable executive Charles Dolan through his company Sterling Information Services, with backing from Time Inc., which approved a $150,000 development grant for the project on the 2nd of November 1971.
HBO's inaugural telecast was a National Hockey League game between the New York Rangers and the Vancouver Canucks, transmitted from Madison Square Garden over channel 21 to 365 subscribers in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. Immediately after the game, the 1971 film Sometimes a Great Notion, starring Paul Newman and Henry Fonda, aired as the first movie shown on the service.
HBO became the first television channel in the world to begin transmitting via satellite in September 1975. The move transformed HBO from a regional service covering parts of the northern Mid-Atlantic and southern New England into a national television network.
HBO operates six 24-hour multiplex channels: HBO (the flagship), HBO Hits (formerly HBO2), HBO Drama (formerly HBO Signature), HBO Comedy, HBO Movies (formerly HBO Zone), and HBO Latino. HBO Hits, HBO Drama, and HBO Movies all adopted their current names on the 4th of September 2025. HBO Family closed on the 15th of August 2025.
HBO on Demand, the first subscription video-on-demand service offered by any American premium network, launched on the 1st of July 2001, through Time Warner Cable's system in Columbia, South Carolina. The standalone streaming service HBO Now launched later on the 7th of April 2015, available for $15 per month without a cable subscription requirement.
HBO began transmitting a high-definition simulcast feed on the 6th of March 1999, becoming the first American cable television network to simulcast programming in HD. Original series became available in HD on the 14th of January 2001, with an encore run of the second season of The Sopranos, and the first first-run HD episode of any HBO series aired on the 4th of March 2001.