HBO’s name was only meant to last until someone thought of a better one.
Charles Dolan, a New York cable operator, first called it the Green Channel. His team picked Home Box Office as a stand-in, in a hurry to make a printing deadline, and never got around to replacing it. The placeholder went on the air in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, in November 1972, and Home Box Office, Inc. is still the company’s legal name.
HBO on Brandseum