HBO is a premium entertainment channel in New Zealand available on Sky New Zealand. The channel broadcasts HBO Original programming. It was previously called SoHo until late October 2024.

History

The channel launched on 31 October 2011, as SoHo screening shows from American cable networks Showtime, AMC, Starz,

HBO Home Box Office (HBO) is an American pay television service, which is the flagship property of namesake parent-subsidiary Home Box Office, Inc., itself a unit owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. The overall Home Box Office business unit is based a ...

and FX, which were themselves not available in New Zealand. It also broadcast shows from Britain, especially from the

BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...

, and also broadcast films. The channel was initially built upon its contract with HBO, but has since broadened its content to include series from other sources. In October 2024, Sky confirmed that the channel would be rebranded as HBO featuring exclusively HBO content, effective 30 October 2024.

Services

There was also a SoHo channel in Australia, which launched on 20 August 2012. It closed down on 4 October 2016, and was replaced by Binge. A sister channel, SoHo2 launched on 7 November 2018. SoHo2 was closed on 16 March 2021 and all the content was moved to the SoHo channel. On 22 October 2024, Sky New Zealand announced that SoHo would be revamped as a linear

channel showing HBO Original content, effective 30 October. The HBO channel is available on Sky Box, Sky Pod and Sky Go. This change accompanied a new partnership between Sky and Warner Bros. Discovery that would allow the former to remain the exclusive distributor of HBO and Max content in New Zealand.

Content

In 2022, SoHo distributed the '' Game of Thrones'' prequel series '' House of the Dragon'' alongside Sky's streaming service Neon. Effective 30 October 2024, the revamped HBO channel features HBO Original content exclusively. Other non-HBO and WBD shows that previously aired on SoHo will be aired instead on Sky's other entertainment channels, Sky 5 and Vibe.

References

External links

* {{Channels on Sky Network Television

New Zealand New Zealand () is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and List of islands of New Zealand, over 600 smaller islands. It is the List of isla ...

Home Box Office, Inc. Television channels in New Zealand Television channels and stations established in 2011 English-language television stations in New Zealand