NEW YORK (AP) – HBO says it has struck a multi-year, multi-platform deal with the multi-faceted Bill Simmons.
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HBO will become Simmons’ exclusive television home. What would you like to see Simmons doing at HBO, whether with his talk show or on the production side? “His intelligence, talent and insights are without precedent in the areas he covers”. In addition, Simmons will be consulting with HBO Sports, working on non-boxing-related programming, including the development of shows and documentary films for the network.
“It’s no secret that HBO is the single best place for creative people in the entire media landscape”, Simmons said. Bill Simmons said in a statement, “it was hard to imagine being anywhere else”.
ESPN announced in May that it would not renew Simmons’ contract when it expired in September, the end of a long relationship between the network and personality that often tended towards the tumultuous. Simmons’s chief passion was basketball, and while he was at ESPN the network let him participate in some of its National Basteball Association broadcasts; I assumed that he’d want to replicate some version of that with Turner, which is the only other programmer with National Basteball Association games.
Simmons started at ESPN in 2001 as a columnist for ESPN.com’s Page 2. He is also a former writer for “Jimmy Kimmel Live!“.
Simmons earned his Bachelor’s Degree at the College of the Holy Cross and earned a Master’s of Arts in Print Journalism from Boston University.
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Specifics of the deal were not announced but it’s arguably as big for HBO as it is for Simmons. What’s more, HBO launched its stand-alone service, HBO Now, earlier this spring, and is seeking more timely, younger-skewing content, like Simmons’, that is likely cut through in an on-demand universe. HBO and Cinemax programming is sold into over 150 countries worldwide.
