Video: 'Home Box Office spot 01 from 1975

(Wednesday, November 8, 1972, 7:30 p.m. EST) — Home Box Office (HBO), the oldest and longest continuously operating subscription television service in the United States, debuted tonight with a live National Hockey League (NHL) game between the New York Rangers and the Vancouver Canucks from Madison Square Garden.

Originating in New York City, HBO was transmitted that evening over channel 21, its original assigned channel on the Teleservice system, to its initial base of 365 subscribers in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania.

Wilkes-Barre resident Marion Sabestinas was the first Teleservice customer to sign up to pay the $6 fee to receive Home Box Office’s programming at launch.

The first movie presentation shown on the service, which aired immediately after the sports event, was 1971’s Sometimes a Great Notion starring Paul Newman and Henry Fonda.

Programming featured on the network in the coming years would consist primarily of theatrically released motion pictures and original television programs as well as made-for-cable movies, documentaries, occasional comedy and concert specials, and periodic interstitial programs (consisting of short films and making-of documentaries).