Publication details
An Uneasy Transfer of “Quality”: HBO Europe’s Original Content Production
| Authors | |
|---|---|
| Year of publication | 2015 |
| Type | Appeared in Conference without Proceedings |
| MU Faculty or unit | |
| Citation | |
| Description | In 1991, HBO Europe established central offices in Budapest. Soon after, it set up an additional 14 branches across Europe, all but one in post-socialist countries. More recently, four of these--Budapest, Prague, Warsaw, and Bucharest--opened an original programming department. These were responsible for providing culturally local quality content for the company's subscription television and HBO GO online services, thus emulating its approach to the US market. A new two-tiered production strategy has come to the fore since HBO Europe recruited the experienced producer Antony Root as its new Executive Vice President for Original Programming and Production. On the one hand, the company broadcasts low-budget licensed series for each of the four national markets to test local responses to a property. On the other hand, it produces big-budget event mini-series. One example of this approach is The Burning Bush (2013), an award-winning three-part drama helmed by the renowned Polish director Agnieszka Holland, who previously worked for HBO in the United States, about the Czech national hero and martyr Jan Palach. As the company's Budapest-based Head of Development suggested, HBO's gradual development of local talent and adaptation of American-style project development practices were crucial albeit challenging steps to striking a good balance between maintaining the cultural specificities of local fare while increasing its general quality. In my presentation, based on in-depth interviews with HBO executives in Prague, Warsaw and Budapest, and with independent producers and screenwriters, I would like to propose a hypothesis linking globalization of production with creative labor and localized learning in the post-socialist work worlds. The aim of the paper is to explain how tacit knowledge and standards of “quality” have been transferred and adapted in a way that results not just in innovative works, but also in new practices that influence the local production cultures. |
| Related projects: |