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HBO Nabs Obama Inaugural Opener

Premium channel gets exclusive TV rights to offer Jan. 18 Opening Celebration free for cable, satellite subscribers

By Marisa Guthrie -- Broadcasting & Cable, 1/7/2009 7:35:00 AM

VIDEO: B&C's Programming Editor Marisa Guthrie discusses inauguration coverage on Fox News.

HBO has sealed a deal to be the exclusive TV provider of the Opening Celebration for President-elect Barack Obama's inauguration on Sunday, Jan. 18.

The opening ceremony, to be held on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, is a hot ticket and a marquis kick-off event featuring a star-studded concert. (Specific musical acts have yet to be announced.) 

HBO will televise the event on an open signal so that cable and satellite subscribers who do not have HBO will be able to watch the inaugural kicker.

The pay cabler made a similar deal with Bill Clinton's Presidential Inaugural Committee in 1993. Then, the concert headliners were Bob Dylan and Diana Ross, and HBO paid a reported $1.5 million for the exclusive rights to the concert. That deal rankled many, since HBO did not make the event available to non-subscribers.

"We are honored to be broadcasting an event of this national significance featuring some of the leading talent from the music and entertainment industry," Bill Nelson, Chairman & CEO, Home Box Office, said in a statement.  "HBO is proud to work with all of our distributors to make this event accessible to as many citizens as possible."

Meanwhile, Time Warner, the parent company of HBO, announced on Wednesday a write down of $25 billion, a reflection of declining values at its AOL Internet sector and cable and publishing operations.

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• I'm not sure if this is the right place to comment on HBO's Sunday concert, Jan.18.09. I hope so. I march wth Martin L. King in 1963. I wept with the restof the thinking, feeling world whem he was shot in 1968. I have watached every minute of CNN's coverage of everything 'Obama' and could not hardly wait until I could hear the concert. But, no. Altho' Obama speaks to and the middle class, the middle class could not hear the concert unless we had HBO and digital underwaewr. Not right! Not fair!When and where will I be able to hear the concert as it was presented in Washington. How I wish I couldhave been there in person b ut I'm a disabled senior these days and cannot travle with the wings of my heart. Please make HBO available somehow to the rest of the 'poorer' people who love Obama.

  
  Linda helen Macdonald - 1/19/2009 9:01:27 PM EST
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