HBO Canada!

I meant to post on this yesterday but I'm only getting a chance to do so now. (This will only be interesting to my Canadian readers, but there are a lot of you out there, eh?)

TMN has announced that the channel previously known as M-More will be switching to HBO Canada, which is all-HBO programming. (Of course, under current regulations, 30% must be Canadian, but that's not a bad thing.) This means that new HBO series in the U.S. will be debuting date and time with the Canadian channel, rather than airing there first. Now, the thing is, TMN already gets almost all of the HBO shows, so it's not like we can yell, "Hooray! Now we finally get Entourage!! Uh..." For shows airing right now, such as Entourage, True Blood, etc. that are currently premiering on M, they'll continue to stay on that channel while also being broadcast on HBO Canada (as I put it to the publicist when I talked to her, "So I don't have to reprogram my PVR?") until the current crop of shows are finished.

What intrigues me most about this channel is the older stuff they'll be showing. They'll be reaching into the "HBO library" as they put it, and re-airing series such as Oz or Da Ali G Show from the beginning. They'll be showing HBO documentaries and movies. While these aired on TMN at one time, they don't air any longer, so it'll be nice to see some of them again.

Here is my hope for this new programming. By putting all of the HBO series onto this one channel, it opens up the other channels for new programming. Maybe TMN can start looking to buy more things from other cable channels in the U.S. that aren't easily available here: Mad Men, Breaking Bad, The Shield (Global has done a LOUSY job airing this show something like 6 months after it airs in the U.S.), Damages, etc. TMN has always done a much better job in getting the U.S. programming to coincide with the airing in the U.S. (see not only the HBO series but Dexter, Californication, etc.), rather than all the spoilers getting out so by the time we watch it, it's old news. Maybe they could fit a reality show in there, like, mm... Project Runway? I was SO annoyed last season that I knew Christian was going to win 5 episodes before it ended here, ARGH.

Anyway, this is fun news for now, but here's hoping it opens up the remaining channels to bring us even more intriguing news of pick-ups in the future.