Home Box Office
30 Hudson Yards, New York, NY, 10001, United States
Overview
HBO is a television company that offers two 24-hour premium TV services, HBO and Cinemax, to subscribers across the United States via cable, C-band satellite, direct broadcast satellite (DBS), and microwave (MMDS). The company offers programs that include series, sports, documentaries, comedy, and movies. It allows viewers to stream episodes and programs on computers, mobile devices, tablets, streaming players, game consoles, and connected televisions. HBO also sells collectibles, t-shirts and hoodies, mugs, glasses, accessories, DVDs, gift cards, and others online. In addition, it develops and markets officially licensed merchandise for retail sale. It licenses various categories of merchandise, including apparel, publishing, housewares, interactive games, electronics, paper goods, gifts and novelties, collectibles, toys and games, sporting goods, food and beverages, and health and beauty products. Its licensed merchandise is distributed to specialty and gift stores, mid-to-upper level department stores, and online retailers including the HBO Store. The company serves subscribers in the United States, Asia, Europe, and Latin America. HBO was established in 1972 and is based in New York, United States.
- Total investments
- 3
- Lead investments
- 0
- Investments · 12mo
- 0
- Active investors
- 0
Sector focus
- Media and Entertainment
- TV Production
- Video Streaming
Investment portfolio
- Philo
Participated · Series B · Jun 2015
Philo operates an on‑campus internet TV service that delivers live TV streams, a network DVR, search, sharing and mobile access to students. The company places its hardware on campus or at local cable head-ends to convert existing cable or satellite feeds to IP video. Philo partners with distributors including Direct TV, Dish and Comcast and is live at a couple dozen U.S. universities. It is expanding its collection of on‑demand content and improving social features to enable students to share links to programs. Philo started with students as early adopters and expects potential expansion beyond the college market over the next 12 months. The company is relocating from Cambridge to San Francisco and hiring to grow its 28-person team. Philo (formerly Tivli) provides universities a secure, cost-effective IP television solution that streams live TV to students' devices while reducing external bandwidth needs. Its service includes a cloud-based DVR offering hours of recording, unlimited simultaneous channel recordings, a built-in guide and a sleek interface. Philo is rolling out integrations with TV Everywhere and on-demand products like HBO GO, plus interactive content and social media features. The company began in a Harvard dorm room when co-founders Tuan Ho and Nicholas Krasney built the first streaming service and has since expanded to Yale, the University of Washington, Wesleyan and other campuses. The renaming to Philo and new feature rollouts follow a $6.3M Series A that the company says is fueling rapid expansion. CEO Christopher Thorpe framed the rebrand as a signal of the company’s continued growth and commitment to delivering television to the next generation of students. PHILO operates a social television platform that lets viewers "check in" to shows and interact with programming and other viewers. Its web and mobile platform supports social interactions around live and time-shifted TV content. The company has launched v.1.2 of its iPhone and iPod Touch app, which adds support for check-ins to time-shifted television content. Apps for BlackBerry and Android are noted as still in development. PHILO has also debuted a social TV web application at www.playPHILO.com. The company recently completed a financing of an undisclosed amount.
- Tivli
Participated · Series A · Jul 2013
Tivli delivers multi-channel live, time-shifted and on-demand TV to students on their devices with a sleek interface, built-in guide and DVR. The service provides cost-effective, secure video distribution over universities' existing data networks. Tivli is rolling out integrations with TV Everywhere and on-demand products such as HBO GO, plus interactive content and social media features. The company began in a Harvard dorm room and was incubated by Harvard Student Agencies, the Technology and Entrepreneurship Center at Harvard, Summer at Highland, Fresh Pond Partners, and the Harvard Innovation Lab. After its initial launch at Harvard, Tivli expanded to Yale, Texas A&M, the University of Washington, Wesleyan, and other campuses. The company says the new funding will be used to fuel expansion in the university market and other operational and strategic initiatives.
Team
No current team members are available.