English Entertainment
Mediacom, HBO expand distribution agreement
MUMBAI: Mediacom Communications Corporation, through its operating subsidiaries and Home Box Office announced that they have expanded their carriage agreement for HBO and Cinemax and the core HBO and Cinemax digital packages offered by the premium network.
The long-term agreement includes the distribution of the subscription video on demand (SVOD) services, HBO On Demand and Cinemax On Demand; as well as high definition channels like HBO HD and Cinemax HD.
Mediacom Communications will include HBO On Demand and Cinemax On Demand at no additional charge to HBO subscribers of its Digital Star Paks featuring HBO and Cinemax in areas that Mediacom offers on demand capabilities and in additional markets as they are launched.
HBO On Demand offers subscribers unlimited access to HBO’s award-winning original programming as well as Hollywood theatricals. Cinemax On Demand offers the best films from the big screen, drawing from the biggest premium television movie library. Both services allow consumers to fast-forward, rewind and pause the programming at will.
The HBO HD and Cinemax HD services mirror the main channels, providing 75 per cent and 70 per cent of daily programming in true high definition, respectively.
Both HBO HD and Cinemax HD will be accessible in markets where Mediacom offers its HDTV service and will continue to be rolled out to customers as the services become accessible in additional markets.
English Entertainment
Ellison takes his Paramount-Warner Bros case straight to theater owners
The Skydance chief goes to CinemaCon with promises and a skeptical crowd waiting
CALIFORNIA: David Ellison strode into a room packed with thousands of cinema owners and executives at CinemaCon in Las Vegas on Thursday and did something rather bold: he looked them in the eye and asked them to trust him.
The chief executive of Paramount Skydance vowed that his company would release a minimum of 30 films a year if regulators greenlight its proposed $110 billion acquisition of Warner Bros Discovery, a deal that has made theater owners deeply, and loudly, nervous.
“I wanted to look every single one of you in the eye and give you my word,” Ellison told the crowd. “Once we combine with Warner Bros, we are going to make a minimum of 30 films annually across both studios.”
It was a confident pitch. Whether it landed is another matter. Cinema operators have already called on regulators to block the deal, and scepticism in the room was hardly concealed.
Ellison pushed back by pointing to recent form. Paramount, born from the merger of Paramount Global and Skydance Media last August, plans to release 15 films this year, nearly double the eight it put out in 2025. Progress, he argued, was already underway.
He also threw theater owners a bone they have long been chasing: all films, he pledged, would run exclusively in cinemas for a minimum of 45 days, drawing applause from a crowd that has spent years fighting for exactly that commitment across the industry.
“People can speculate all they want,” Ellison said, “but I am standing here today telling you personally that you can count on our complete commitment. And we’ll show you we mean it.”
Fine words. The regulators, however, will have the last one.
