I get that Mr. Mesce is in the business but I find his use of slang and inside terms annoying. I liked the use of pictures but I found there use choppy. some show had them others nothing. In one case he had pictures of one of the CEO's but none of the founders and originators. ( )

This was really much better than I thought it would be and truly an insider's account of HBO. It was highly readable and great fun to just pick up and read about the early days of cable and HBO. A chatty and entertaining read for anyone who is interested in media studies, TV history and programming, or just has a casual interest in what goes on inside the box. ( )

Inside the Rise of HBO: A Personal History of the Company That Transformed Television by Bill Mesce, Jr. is a 2015 McFarland Publication.

I was provided a copy of this book via the LibraryThing Early review program.

I have read other books about HBO, it’s history, failures and successes, but, this book is written by a man who worked for the company for twenty-seven years, which gives the reader an up close and personal view of the strategies used, the marketing applied, the experimentation, and the ability and willingness of the company to reinvent itself to stay ahead of some pretty intense competition and changing tides.

In order to see how HBO impacted the television industry, one does need a brief look at the types of programming aired on television during the infancy of broadcasting. So, this book gives a very brief history of how television got its start, and how rapidly it had progressed by the 1970’s.

It’s funny to think that HBO got off to such a ludicrous beginning, with only four hundred subscribers in 1972, and showing only a hockey game and a two- year-old movie at its premier.

But, pay television itself had a pretty bumpy start, with numerous attempts to launch such services falling flat. But, with some incredible technological luck involving fiber optics, and the sport of boxing, HBO finally got a break. Once it took off, it never looked back and the rest... is history.

Many of you reading this review were born with pay cable installed in your home, and are immune to 500 channels running twenty-four hours a day, with no commercials. In fact, while this amazed me for many years, most of you will have shunned the big cable packages, and even view it with great disdain. Some of you may even strain to remember a time before Hulu and Netflix and YouTube.

But, there are a few of us dinosaurs left out there who spent their formative years watching three, maybe four broadcast channels that went off the air at midnight. For me, it wasn’t until 1978 or 79, that rumors began to circulate in my small hometown, that cable television was coming to our neck of the woods.

Soon, instead coming home from school and watching old reruns of “Bewitched” or After School Specials, I was able to switch on Home Box Office at four PM.

Movies, sports, and stand-up comedy routines were the usual fare, with a sprinkling of live concerts from KISS to Barry Manilow just to name a few. This certainly beats watching reruns, that’s for sure. But, for someone who grew up on commercial broadcast channels, the true marvel was that it was commercial free programming. The other significant difference was the uncut movies, which of course meant nudity and cursing right there in the living room, which for some was quite shocking.

HBO soon became a twenty-four hour channel and picked up a bit of competition when Showtime came along.

However, once cable TV became the norm, cracks in the armor began to show as customers grew bored with watching the same movie rotations over and over again. HBO marketers began to realize that getting subscribers was only part of the battle. Once the consumer agreed to add HBO to their cable package, they had to wow them, which became a huge challenge, with sub-par Hollywood movies, the advent of the VCR and video rentals, and changing tastes and viewing habits.

Yet, time and time again HBO somehow pulled a rabbit out of the hat, and not only survived, but flourished, outshining its competition with innovation and the courage to take risks and try new tactics. Sometimes they failed, struggled, and floundered, but always managed to land on their feet.

For me, the novelty of HBO peaked during the early 2000’s with their incredible slate of comedies and dramas like “Sex and the City” and of course the incomparable drama “The Soprano’s”, which is still considered one of the best, if not THE best program in television history.

Speaking from a personal prospective, the only reason my family kept HBO was for its original programming. Once these stellar dramas faded into history, I began to complain long and loud about how many times “Crimson Tide” was on. I would flip through hundreds of channels, sometimes three or four times before becoming so frustrated, I simply turned the box off and picked up a book instead.

With the streaming services beginning to make waves, I became one of the first to drop cable and live solely on streaming content. This new way of viewing television begs the question; “How does HBO adapt to yet another huge change in viewer habits?”

Well, it has survived everything else that was thrown at it, and is still standing. I haven’t subscribed to the channel in at least eight years, and I can’t say I really missed it. Game of Thrones is easily obtainable through DVD box sets, Amazon streams, and now, even Netflix is allowed to rent the DVD’s, and my favorite, John Oliver, is a YouTube staple. There are many quality shows on FX and AMC available through streaming services too.

Still, despite the thin ice I believe HBO could be skating on, especially by holding out much too long on launching al carte apps and their tenacious adherence to the outmoded exclusivity game, which no longer holds much appeal, one should never count the company out or presume it will fail. Others have danced on its grave prematurely, only to wind up embarrassed by their predictions.

I will always respect HBO for what it has done for television, providing us with some of the best, highest quality programming, setting the standard for which everyone tries to match, for opening the television viewing world wide open, and for its fighting spirit.

I enjoyed this author’s unique insight into the history of HBO and the revolution of television as a whole. Although the author admits some bias, I agree that HBO is responsible for nearly every change we’ve seen in programming trends. The company, at one time, was attentive to its customers, listened to their complaints, and did work hard to give them what they wanted.

Now?
I think the company has its hands full trying to stay relevant and stay afloat, amid a myriad of competition vying for our time, such as apps, games, and social media. HBO can’t stop and rest on its laurels or past successes any longer. It will certainly be interesting to see what magic trick they have up their sleeve, and how HBO will cope in the future, but I can’t imagine HBO ever going down for the count. So stay tuned….

This book should be fun for those who wish to explore the history of HBO, young or old, and for those who love pop culture, history, and nostalgia, and is an interesting study in marketing and business strategy.

Overall, this is an interesting read with the print version containing some nice black and white photos and a nice Appendix. ( )

Man, I was so excited to win Inside the Rise of HBO as an Early Review Copy. I'm a huge fan of a lot of HBO shows, so it was really interesting to learn about their backstory and the general history of cable television. Bill Mesce Jr. actually wrote about an area in PA where my uncle and his family used to live, and I remembered some of his stories about being one of the first areas with cable TV. They lived in the mountains, so basic TV options were extremely limited. And funnily enough, his favorite show was one of HBO's first "orginal series" and it was... Pennsykvania Polka!

So I'd give this book five stars. I had a great time reading it, and remembering some of HBO's great shows: Carnivale, Deadwood, Rome. I'd highly recommend this book if you're a fan of cable TV shows and want to learn a little bit about the history. ( )

A very interesting look at HBO and the television process altogether. Having been an early subscriber to HBO way back when, it's interesting to read about how all that came about. Good stuff!