HBO is Notoriously Cheap.

[Herc]

Howard supersedes all Heebs in greediness . . .

- - -

P.S. At least HBO has "Kraft Services" for it's employees. While Howard merely provides absolutely nothing for his employees . . .

[Woof]

howard wanted adam carolla to work for free.........nuff said.

^ this ^

[blottomsup]

This, he's been preaching the "HBO is cheap" mantra for a few years now, for him to be that consistent about it something personal had to go down.

Absotutely.

Here's my speculation.

When Howard parted ways with the E channel, HBO was the best alternative. The radio show was moving to Sirius, an uncensored medium. It made sense to move the TV show to HBO, also an uncensored medium.

Howard has said on the air that he entered negotiations with HBO. Obviously the negotiations did not pan out. That effectively left Howard with just one final option: On Demand.

On Demand probably does not pay Howard any amount of money that is guaranteed. Howard probably gets a certain compensation per subscription. The more subscriptions, the more money. And vice versa.

Even at the beginning of the first contract, On Demand subscription numbers probably did not match Howard's expectations. Howard overestimated how many of his radio listeners would follow him to Sirius. So he probably also overestimated how may of his radio listeners would pay for his TV show.

Whatever subscription numbers Howard had at the beginning of the first On Demand contract had to have been the pinnacle. Howard never delivered the greatness that he promised on Sirius radio. As this message board attests, radio listeners have left in droves. TV subscribers must have left in droves as well.

I imagine that at this point Howard is fully pissed at how little money he's making off of On Demand, and he wishes that he had a contract with guaranteed money. This makes Howard think back on the failed contract negotiations with HBO, and it pisses him off all over again.

After signing with Sirius, Howard said on the air that finally he was going to be paid what he's worth. The Sirius contract probably set an expectation in the negotiations with HBO. Howard was probably insulted by whatever amount of money HBO offered him, even if it was reasonable by objective standards.

[PI Nate]

Howard supersedes all Heebs in greediness . . .

- - -

P.S. At least HBO has "Kraft Services" for it's employees. While Howard merely provides absolutely nothing for his employees . . .

wigward counts on local restaurants donating food every morning for "plugs"...

[Greekfreak]

Absotutely.

Here's my speculation.

When Howard parted ways with the E channel, HBO was the best alternative. The radio show was moving to Sirius, an uncensored medium. It made sense to move the TV show to HBO, also an uncensored medium.

Howard has said on the air that he entered negotiations with HBO. Obviously the negotiations did not pan out. That effectively left Howard with just one final option: On Demand.

On Demand probably does not pay Howard any amount of money that is guaranteed. Howard probably gets a certain compensation per subscription. The more subscriptions, the more money. And vice versa.

Even at the beginning of the first contract, On Demand subscription numbers probably did not match Howard's expectations. Howard overestimated how many of his radio listeners would follow him to Sirius. So he probably also overestimated how may of his radio listeners would pay for his TV show.

Whatever subscription numbers Howard had at the beginning of the first On Demand contract had to have been the pinnacle. Howard never delivered the greatness that he promised on Sirius radio. As this message board attests, radio listeners have left in droves. TV subscribers must have left in droves as well.

I imagine that at this point Howard is fully pissed at how little money he's making off of On Demand, and he wishes that he had a contract with guaranteed money. This makes Howard think back on the failed contract negotiations with HBO, and it pisses him off all over again.

After signing with Sirius, Howard said on the air that finally he was going to be paid what he's worth. The Sirius contract probably set an expectation in the negotiations with HBO. Howard was probably insulted by whatever amount of money HBO offered him, even if it was reasonable by objective standards.

Top post. I agree with most of what you said. I also agree with Howard based on what I've heard/read about HBO over the years. They sign their "talent" to sweetheart deals where they're locked in for "x" number of seasons (usually 5) with an option for a sixth, which is how it went with Sopranos and SATC. Kim Catrall's interview with Howard was the best he'd done in years, mostly because of her candor where the finances were concerned. The final seasons for both shows were where the real money was made per episode, but even still, none of the cast shared in the royalties from syndication or DVD sales (which nowadays is probably a lot less anyway), except maybe Sarah Jessica Parker who had a producing credit.

Stevie Van Zandt also confirmed he was making considerably more per episode by the end of the run, but got absolutely no residuals. That's a tight network.

I also contend that Howard wanted ownership of his show (would never happen with HBO), but he also wanted them to put up all the production costs. If I were them, I'd have told him to go fuck himself. Uncensored or not, the E! shows were mostly embarassing.