HBO OLE
HBO OLÉ (aka HBO Latin America), a Spanish-language "Movie Channel" of the HBO Cable network operating in the Caribbean, and Central and South America, acquired the rights to air the 1996 TV Movie. The film was promoted as "Dr Who" rather than "Dr Misterio".
The station operated two channels, HBO Olé 1 and HBO Olé 2 (aka HBO Plus).
Of note, in some of these countries the TV Movie had previously been available a few years earlier as a subtitled VHS tape. (The film had also apparently aired on TV in Argentina in early 1997, but we have been unable to verify this.)
(See also HBO Max.)
Stories bought and broadcast
Transmission
PAUL McGANN
The following countries were known to have access to HBO Olé:
- Oeste (West) feed (sourced out from Mexico):
- Argentina
- Aruba
- Barbados
- Colombia
- Costa Rica
- Curaçao
- Dominican Republic
- Ecuador
- El Salvador
- Guatemala
- Honduras
- Mexico
- Nicaragua
- Panama
- Peru
- Saint Lucia
- United States (Miami only?)
- Venezuela
- Este (East) feed (sourced out from Argentina):
During February and March, the movie aired eight times on HBO Olé 1:
Only some of the regional air-times are known:
- Tuesday, 16 February 1999:
- Mexico – 9.59pm
- Venezuela – 11.59pm
- Argentina – 12.59am
- Saturday, 20 February 1999
- Mexico – 1.00am
- Venezuela – 3.00am
- Argentina – 4.00am
- Tuesday, 23 February 1999:
- Mexico – 4.44am
- Venezuela – 6.44am
- Argentina – 7.44am
- Saturday, 27 February 1999:
- Mexico – 5.15pm
- Venezuela – 7.15pm
- Argentina – 8.15pm
- Miami - 9.15pm? [see clipping]
- Monday, 1 March 1999:
- Argentina – 8.45pm (East)
- Friday, 5 March 1999:
- Argentina – 4.45am (East)
- Sunday, 7 March 1999:
- Argentina – 6.45am (East)
- Thursday, 11 March 1999:
- Argentina – 1.30am (East)
(NOTE: Unless stated, the air-times are based on the "West" feed, which is three hours later than the "East" feed).
A few months later, the movie was shown six times on HBO Olé 2 (it's not known which feed these times relate to):
- Friday, 21 May 1999 (10pm)
- Monday, 24 May 1999 (6.45pm)
- Friday, 4 June 1999 (3.15pm)
- Saturday, 19 June 1999 (11.45pm)
- Wednesday, 23 June 1999 (1.44am)
- Wednesday, 30 June 1999 (8.45pm)
A month after that, the film returned for four more screenings during July, with the first of these on HBO Olé 2 (and therefore available in only some countries?). The other three were back on the main channel. (Only the Argentina and Mexico "East" / "West" times - with now only two hours difference - are listed.)
- Thursday, 1 July 1999 (HBO Olé 2)
- Argentina – 9.15pm
- Sunday, 11 July 1999:
- Argentina – 7.44am / 9.44am
- Mexico - 5.44am / 7.44am
- Saturday, 17 July 1999:
- Argentina – 7.15am / 9.15am
- Mexico - 5.15am / 7.15am
- Tuesday, 20 July 1999:
- Argentina – 5.00am / 7.00am
- Mexico - 3.00am / 5.00am
By September, HBO Olé 2 had been renamed HBO Plus. The movie aired three more times (feed unknown) on the rebranded channel:
- Friday, 10 September 1999 (4.45pm)
- Wednesday, 15 September 1999 (1.15pm)
- Monday, 20 September 1999 (11.44pm)
A fourth and final airing on HBO Olé 1 came towards the end of the year:
- Friday / Saturday, 8 / 9 October 1999:
- Argentina – 1.00am / 3.00am (Sat)
- Mexico - 11.00pm / 1.00am (Fri/Sat)
The movie had two final screenings in December - back on HBO Plus (the feeds are unknown):
- Tuesday, 7 December 1999 (2.15am)
- Tuesday, 14 December 1999 (4.45pm)
All these broadcasts were in English with Spanish subtitles. (Although Dutch is the official language of Aruba, Curaçao and Suriname, English and Spanish could also be spoken in these countries.)
Listings
Our information regarding HBO Olé came from: HBO OLE on REC ARTS DR WHO
The Spanish language newspaper El Nuevo Herald - which had an edition published in Miami Florida - has listings for OLE, but these only cover 7pm to 11pm so the early morning and late evening screenings of the TV Movie don't appear; also, the paper only uses the generic term "Película" for its "film" listings, so only the 27 February 1999 issue [see clipping above] had an unidentified film from 9pm to 10.30pm that fitted within the above timeslots (adjusted for the US time zones) on that date.
