The inside story of HBO, with Jim Miller

Channels with Peter Kafka

Vox Media Podcast Network

Business News, News, Tv & Film, Technology

4.4 • 585 Ratings

🗓️ 18 November 2021

⏱️ 58 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

HBO has brought us nearly 50 years of riveting movies and TV shows; the behind-the-scenes stories are equally compelling. Journalist James Andrew Miller, who has written definitive oral histories of media institutions like Saturday Night Live and ESPN, tells Recode’s Peter Kafka about his newest work: Tinderbox: HBO’s Ruthless Pursuit of New Frontiers. Included in their chat: How HBO ascended to power; why attempts to combine the company with Apple and other suitors never happened; what really happened when AT&T decided to buy and then sell HBO’s parent company; and what happens to HBO in a world where it competes with deep-pocketed rivals like Netflix and Disney. Featuring: Jim Miller (@jimmiller), Journalist and Author Host: Peter Kafka (@pkafka), Senior Editor at Recode More to explore: Subscribe for free to Recode Media, Peter Kafka, one of the media industry's most acclaimed reporters, talks to business titans, journalists, comedians, and more to get their take on today's media landscape. About Recode by Vox: Recode by Vox helps you understand how tech is changing the world — and changing us. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	In today's fast-changing digital world, proving your company is trustworthy isn't just important for growth, it's essential.
0:08.8	That's why Vanta is here. Vanta helps companies of all sizes get compliant fast and stay that way, with industry-leading AI, automation and continuous monitoring.
0:20.3	So whether you're a startup tackling your first
0:22.8	SOC 2 or ISO-27-001 or an enterprise managing vendor risk, Vanta's trust management platform makes it
0:31.8	quicker, easier and more scalable. The results? According to a recent IDC study, Vanta customers slash over
0:40.4	$500,000 a year in costs and are three times more productive. Establishing trust isn't optional.
0:48.7	Vanta makes it automatic. Visit vanta.com slash Voxpod to sign up for a free demo today that's v a mta.com
0:59.2	slash voxpod this is recode media of peter kofka that is me and i've been looking forward
1:09.8	to this conversation for a couple
1:11.9	years. I got James Andrew Miller in here. He's written many books. And the one I'm talking about now
1:16.3	is called Tinderbox. It is HBO's Ruthless Pursuit of New Frontiers. It is a oral history of the 49
1:23.9	year history of HBO. Welcome, Jim. Thanks for having me. I was just telling you off air, this is like a Christmas present,
1:31.5	kind of written for me as someone who's consumed a ton of HBO and then who's written about
1:37.1	HBO and Time Warner and Netflix and Disney and the media business for years. You've pushed
1:42.2	all that into one book, which means if you listen to this podcast, this book is also for you. So thank you for that. Well, my pleasure.
1:48.8	I'm delighted you liked it. You have written about CAA, ESPN, Saturday Night Live,
1:54.7	now HBO. Why is HBO worth 900 plus pages? How many interviews are in this book?
2:00.6	757. Okay. 757 interviews, 900 pages. Why is HBO worth that much work?
2:06.6	Well, I mean, look, I think it's a cultural force, it's a media force. Its history has been
2:12.6	chock full of impactful moments and events that have shaped, further shaped the industry.
2:22.1	And much like SNL and ESPN and CA, it started in the 1970s from the most humble of origins
2:29.7	with very, very low expectations, many, many more people betting against it than were supporting it.
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Vox Media Podcast Network, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Vox Media Podcast Network and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.