Penn Video will offer HBO at a reduced price

Carrie Bradshaw and Tony Soprano are about to become the newest faces at Penn.

The Penn Video Network has decided to add Home Box Office to the Penn TV channel line-up on a trial basis.

The decision to bring HBO and HBO Plus to campus cable, a long-standing student request, comes after two-and-a-half years of debate and research on the part of the Penn Video Network.

Everyone living in on-campus housing will receive HBO and HBO Plus for a special free preview period during the month of December.

The Penn Video Network, the University's closed-circuit cable television channel, will then charge students $50 per TV outlet for the channels next semester.

"Our goal is to transmit HBO on a bulk basis to go out to everyone at a reduced rate," Video Services Coordinator Mayumi Hirtzel said. "This whole project is not really cost effective for us. We're actually losing money on this."

Usually, HBO subscriptions cost $13 to $15 per month, but Penn students will be billed a lower rate of roughly $10 per month.

Hirtzel said the purpose of the free trial period is for students to decide if they want to spend the $50 and subscribe for the spring semester.

At the conclusion of the spring semester, the Penn Video Network will look at the number of student subscriptions and decide whether it is worthwhile to provide HBO/HBO Plus programming in future semesters.

The fees will be handled like on-campus phone charges -- the charge will appear on the Student Financial Services account as part of the Student Telephone Services charge.

Previously left without Sex and the City and The Sopranos while at Penn, many students said they were pleased with the decision.

"I love HBO, and I really missed it last year," College sophomore Abbey Raish said. "It makes me feel like they are positively responding to student requests and listening to students' voices."

The Undergraduate Assembly passed a proposal last February urging the Penn Video Network to bring HBO to campus.

The UA also showed HBO's hit show, Sex and the City, in Houston Hall and asked students to sign a petition urging the Penn Video Network to offer the premium channel. The UA approached the Penn Video Network with the petition, signed by 40 percent of the student body who not only wanted HBO, but would be willing to pay for the channel if given the chance.

"Their percentage was a huge heads up for us," Hirtzel said. "It was a very nice coincidence that they happened to come to the same conclusion as we did and pretty much at the same time."

"This is a great, tangible accomplishment that will really benefit a large segment of the population," said UA Chairwoman Dana Hork, a College senior. "Students have been asking for HBO for a long time, and the UA is proud that we were able to help bring it to campus."

For students studying abroad and for last-minute subscription changes, the Penn Video Network will offer a limited window of opportunity to sign up in early January 2002. This will be the final chance for students to register for the HBO/HBO Plus program, as Penn will not be accepting month-to-month or mid-semester subscription requests.

"I've always wanted HBO," College sophomore Todd Fieldston said. He used to trek over to his brother's off-campus house to watch Sex and the City and The Sopranos.

"This will be so much more convenient and the price is good compared to what it would cost if I were to buy it myself," he said.

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