i guess i dont know too much about the HBO buy rates, etc...but sopranos premiered this year at under 10 million...now does anyone have any theories about what this means?

does it mean more people are simply gonna watch it on demand and chose to watch housewives, family guy, west wing, etc...


does it mean hbo is hurting in buy rates? I know, the onyl thing that kept me on hbo for the last 4 months between curb and sopranos was the fact that I could watch sopranos on demand...

or does anyone think that its an oppurtunity cost situation like with the movies? i mean, when the same cost of hbo can get u a netflix account, whereby you can watch anything, whenever, and for however long, its kind of a better deal if u dont mind being a bit off the cutting edge of tv...i mean i for one havent wacthed scrubs, homicide, commish, and a bunch of older shows on dvd and would pick those over hbo (essentially only sopranos and big love now) any day of the week i guess...

any thoughts? anyone cancel hbo, reason why?

The network is not in trouble. When a show disappears for 2 years it takes time for the news of a new season to resonate with people. I know some hardcore Sopranos fans who got HBO just for the show; some of them didn't even know about the new season.

If I only had one tuner, I would have watched Desperate Housewives and then just recorded Sopranos later in the night/week. I'm sure other people did this also, even though I kept hearing about this big DH vs. Sopranos ratings war.

But I still haven't watched the Sopranos premiere off my D*Tivo. My husband & I are backed on up shows we watch together.

I only order HBO for the Sopranos. After its over I cancel it and wait 18 months for it to come back on. Luckily I never got hooked on any other original series. I've been thinking about actually keeping now though since i finially got a HD reciever and watching the movies in HD is pretty sweet.

Same here. And any ratings numbers you'd see for Sunday night are going to be slightly off anyway - considering that HBO will re-air this episode multiple times before next week's episode.

Experienced HBO viewers know that you don't HAVE to watch it the first time an episode debuts. I myself will be recording the West Coast feed once Family Guy/American Dad and Desperate Housewives are running new episodes up against The Sopranos at 9pm.

All that aside, the amount HBO fetches for the DVD season sets of The Sopranos, they have NOTHING to worry about.

When most people get HBO now they get an HBO package that includes several HBO channels plus their west coast feeds. And the network reruns all of their original programming several times in the week. So, it doesn't surprise me if it doesn't get massive numbers on its first airing after being gone for almost 2 years. A lot of people, including friends of mine, don't watch it Sundays because it doesn't work into their viewing schedule as well.

I don't see how you can even ask if HBO is trouble after only one episode of Sopranos. It's way too early to make that kind of conclusion. And after what a huge premiere the show had (plot wise and buzz wise), I'll bet the next episode's numbers will be higher.

We added HBO because wife wanted to see S6 of The Sopranos, but we elected to watch Desperate Housewives first as well. The first episode re-aired last night on HBO2 and we saw it then.

I have about 1500 different HBO channels (slight exaggeration). So, if they have a show I want to watch I put it on a low-priority Wishlist and my Tivo picks up whatever showing doesn't have a conflict. This is very rarely the first-run airing on HBO proper.

But also, dont shows on HBO tend to have a smaller audience anyways...I mean it will never compete with the likes of DH, CSI, or Lost. Most people I know still refuse to pay for HBO.

10 million viewers at an average of $15 a month is $150 million a month in revenue. Say after the Sopranos is over it drops to $100 million a month. That's over $1 billion a year in revenue.

Time Warner paid $175 million to produce Into the West. Most HBO shows are a lot less. Say $500 million a year in production costs for the different shows. Most of what they show is reruns of Time Warner made movies anyway. If HBO clears around $150 million a year in profit I don't think it's too bad or a sign of failure.

Plus if you're watching the episodes with OnDemand... you're already paying for the HBO service anyways... at least with Comcast. The ratings aren't as much of a bearing with HBO as they are on network tv, especially nowadays with DVD, Tivo, Ondemand, etc.

yay for east coast feeds while living on the west coast..

6pm sunday conflicts with nothing.

Yep - a lot more people have On Demand and multiple HBO channels than 2 years ago.


As an example, I love P&T Bullshit. I'll probably wait until they are 6 weeks in, order SHOW, watch the 6 eps already aired On Demand, watch the remaining episodes in that month, then cancel SHOW.

Maybe some people are tired of the show? I started watching with episode 1 in season 1 on HBO. I never went the DVD route. And it was awesome. But after so many years of being strung along, I just can't get excited about the show anymore. They've drug it out too long. It's hard to maintain interest when you go 2 years with no new episodes. I much prefer most of the other shows I've seen on HBO to the Sopranos. It's a good show and all, but not their best by a long shot.

Still, I agree with what everyone else has already mentioned. I wouldn't say HBO is in trouble.

HBO has about 28 (or was it 23) million subscribers.

So that means that more than half have it and do NOT watch the sopranos.

No, HBO is not in trouble. And 10m viewers for a premium cable channel show was practically unheard of a few years ago. Sopranos lost some of it's luster, and ratings are scrambled due to multiple reshowings, but it isn't hurting the network in the least.

My wife got into the Sopranos with the S3 dvd set, which came out about a month before the Season 4 debut. So we watched all of season 4 religously. We both were very excited for Season 5 to come. When it did finally come(I think about 15 months late), she had completely lost interest in the show. Which always made me wonder how many people they did loose between Season 3 and 4, and then between the other seasons.

this is true...i suppose the show pays for itself alone in new subscriber buy rates...i just figured int he off months they lose shitloads...but i suppose maybe not...still...it cant be cheap to purchase a hollywood movie to air for a month...can it?

I've only watched one show on the east coast feed, which was a single episode of Curb. It was only because I 'discovered' the different time on the feed, I prefer to watch the shows in High Def.

BTW, if you compare HBO to Netflix, you're paying too much for HBO. I don't know how it works, if the companies pay HBO and keep the fee (ala Columbia House) or if HBO gets $X per month, but I only pay $1/month for HBO (and $8/month for Starz). I got a great promo rate, I know they also do $8/month promos. I'd never pay $15/month for any cable channel, the closest I get is $10/month for a package I get just for ESPN HD.

Anyhoo, my point is that I don't think HBO is hurting at all. They kept Entourage and dropped that Kudrow show, they know what they're doing.

But see, that is just The Sopranos you're considering. They had similar renewal surges for other shows that they ran like Sex and the City, Carnivale, The Wire, Curb You Enthusiasm, Entourage and unquestionably Six Feet Under.

Ever notice that HBO tends to STAGGER their premiers of new seasons? It isn't an accident that two hour long series are never running new episodes simultaneously (the 30 minute shows often debut together to make an hour of new programming).

That's your opinion, and you're entitled to it. I, on the other hand, like the slow character development and progression. Life doesn't tie itself up in nice little bows. Plotlines in life don't always resolve. I figure this show is no less of a hassle to wait for than certain MOVIE sequels that took longer to produce with radically less successful results (Star Wars anyone?).

If you're bored with it, too bad. I am anxious to see how everything ends, where everyone ends up.

How about Sopranos and Big Love? Or are you suggesting that if Big Love is a hit, it will get a staggered premiere for its second season?

Folks,

I think you're all forgetting that unlike ABC showing Desperate Housewives only once a week, HBO does show each new The Sopranos episodes several times per week. As such, if you miss the Sunday night 9 pm ET/PT showing you can always catch the episode later in the week.

Oops, you're right. They're using The Sopranos lead-in to hopefully hook people on Big Love. I believe once it is established it will be staggered like everything else.

I agree. The Sopranos might have been the show that got me into buying HBO shows on dvd (I buy them all, I don't subscribe to HBO), but I have enjoyed every single other HBO hour long drama more than The Sopranos.

Oz is actually the show that got me hooked on HBO's hour long dramas. If I had to choose between picking up a season of Sopranos vs Oz, I'd go with Oz in a heartbeat. Beyond Oz, I somehow missed The Wire (surprising since I'm a big Homicide/Oz fan) and never really got into Rome. Other than those two, I've been a fan of just about every other HBO hour long drama I can think of. The Soproanos is a great show. But I still like the others better.

Anyway, I'm sure I'm in the minority. But I think it's safe to say a small percentage of the viewers are like me. They're worn out from being strung out too long with this show. The OP asked why there were fewer viewers than he felt there should have been. That's one possible answer.

I called DirecTV last week with a small problem and inquired about special offers or deals for customers and after the pleasant conversation they offered me a $10 discount on any premium for 6 months. I requested HBO mainly for The Sopranos.

I'll have to see if I get hooked on any other HBO shows. I keep hearing great things about Entourage and I have the first season just haven't gotten around to watching it yet.