TV & VIDEO - Aug. 17, 1989

It’s official. Home Box Office will take over the management of Movietime, the basic cable channel that promotes and covers the Hollywood film industry, Movietime’s board of directors announced this week. Sources at Movietime say that HBO intends to turn the 24-hour a day channel into “the CNN of the entertainment world.” HBO will now oversee all sales, marketing and programming operations at Movietime, which is owned jointly by several large entertainment conglomerates and cable operators. HBO, which owns about 10% of the company, also plans to break into the world of basic cable with an all-comedy channel later this year.