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Sullivan Stapleton, Philip Winchester Return to Strike Back
Sullivan Stapleton, Philip Winchester Return to Strike Back Sullivan Stapleton and Philip Winchester, the stars of the original run of the CINEMAX action series Strike Back, will reprise their roles as Sgt. Damien Scott and Sgt. Michael Stonebridge with special ... -
CINEMAX picks up series Warrior
CINEMAX Picks Up Tong Wars Drama Series Warrior, Inspired By An Idea From Martial Arts Legend Bruce Lee CINEMAX has picked up the straight-to-series drama WARRIOR, it was announced today by Kary Antholis, president, HBO Miniseries and CINEMAX ...
Cinemax
Cinemax
Cinemax is an American pay cable and satellite television network operated by Home Box Office Inc. Cinemax primarily broadcasts theatrically released feature films, along with original series, documentaries and special behind-the-scenes features.
History of Cinemax
Cinemax launched on August 1, 1980 as HBO’s answer to The Movie Channel (which at the time, was owned by Warner-Amex Satellite Entertainment, a joint venture between Time Warner predecessor Warner Communications and American Express; TMC is now owned by the Showtime Networks subsidiary of CBS Corporation – previously under Viacom from 1983 to 2005). The network was originally owned by Time-Life Inc., which later merged with Warner Communications in 1989 to form the present-day Time Warner.
Unlike HBO – and most cable and broadcast channels already on the air at the time of its launch – the network had broadcast a 24-hour-a-day schedule from its sign-on (HBO ran only nine hours of programming a day from 3:00 p.m. to midnight Eastern Time until September 1981, when it adopted a 24-hour weekend schedule that ran until midnight Eastern Time on Sunday nights; it implemented the round-the-clock schedule on weekdays as well on December 28 of that year). On-air spokesman Robert Culp told viewers that Cinemax would be about movies, and nothing but movies. At the time, HBO featured a wider range of programming, including some entertainment news interstitials, documentaries, children’s programming, sporting events and television specials (in the form of Broadway plays, stand-up comedy acts and concerts). Movie classics were a mainstay of Cinemax at its birth, presented “all uncut and commercial-free” as Culp said on-air. A heavy schedule of films from the 1950s to the 1970s made up most of the channel’s program schedule.
