Hit Man (Part 1)

To understand just how extraordinary that question is, you have to go back to 1995. After a decade of different leadership posts at HBO, Albrecht was the newly appointed president of original programming, and Jeff Bewkes had just taken over as HBO chairman and CEO in New York from the departing Michael Fuchs. (And at press time, Bewkes was promoted to chairman of AOL Time Warner's new Entertainment & Networks Group.) The extent of HBO's original programming was two half-hour comedies, Dream On and The Larry Sanders Show,, which the network touted as "the best hour of comedy on television." HBO programmers joked that they should have called it "the only hour on HBO." Albrecht and Bewkes called a two-day meeting of the executive committee and key original-programming execs. The question on the table: Are we really who we say we are? The answer came back: Not really. At least not yet.

"The words we always used to talk about ourselves were, 'different,' 'distinctive,' 'worth paying for,' 'better,' " says Albrecht. "In that meeting, we came to the conclusion that we weren't quite there yet, but that it was a great thing to strive for. The only way to move forward and win is to take chances and to be distinctive."

For years, "distinctive" at HBO meant nothing more than "not on network TV." Albrecht and Bewkes believed that if they wanted to produce bold, really distinctive television, they needed a new starting place. "If we wanted to be original, we couldn't shut anything out. We had to be open to everything. That was a big shift," says Bewkes. Once HBO turned the corner from counterprogramming the networks, the only important question was, "Is it good? Does it stand out for some reason? If we get much fancier than that, we're going to be in trouble," says Bewkes.

Rather than focusing on paying an altruistic service to the viewing public, HBO's single-minded devotion to quality is part of a bold strategy. "The more we can make original programming the basis of competition, the more of an advantage we'll have," says Bewkes. "It's something you can't buy. It's not a commodity bidding war among cable operators and pay networks. It requires a distinct capability." At the 1995 meeting, says Bewkes, the HBO leadership team decided to "jump fully off this cliff."

It was a big leap. The unit didn't have hoards of cash to invest in programming, and it had no way to measure return on investment for any particular show. They were venturing into fiercely competitive territory with a 90% failure rate. "It was a real mess," says Bewkes. "But we just said forget about it -- let's just do good stuff and we'll solve it later. We decided to take the high road."

Taking that path paid off. Today, HBO invests about $400 million annually in original programming in an increasingly competitive pay-cable landscape built around a new mix of original series, movies, and specials. Basic-cable channels have followed suit, from MTV, with Real World and The Osbournes, to Court TV, with special made-for-TV movies. But the advantage that really matters is HBO's creative edge. Bewkes admits that "going after creative hits is a funny business. Chris and I joke about this all the time. He says at the end of our phone conversations, 'Okay, we've figured it out. We're going to go make some hits.' I say, 'Great, you've got it. Go do it. Go make some hits!' "

continue on to page two.