Barack Obama: HBO channel gets right for inaugural ceremony

HHBO channel will kick off the coverage of Inauguration Week with an exclusive Sunday, Jan. 18, telecast of the star-studded opening ceremony. The telecasting will start from 2 days before the saturation coverage of President Barack Obama's inauguration.

In the year 1993, HBO channel is going to pay 1.5 million dollars to the Presidential Inaugural Committee to exclusively televise Bill Clinton's kickoff from the Lincoln Memorial. It has annoyed non-HBO subscribers who were not able to watch the concert by Bob Dylan and Diana Ross.

This time around, HBO ,which has been awarded the rights for an undisclosed sum,  is planning to offer the event free to cable and satellite subscribers, irrespective of whether they have the pay channel or not. The entertainment lineup for the event, which may also be streamed, is yet to be announced. However Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden are scheduled to attend.

"(HBO's) proven track record as a leader in television will help ensure an event that reflects President-elect Obama's commitment to holding an inauguration that is open, accessible and reflects America's spirit of unity," added inaugural committee executive director Emmett S. Beliveau.

Since they are not televising that Sunday afternoon event live, the other networks including all the broadcast and cable news channels and also TV One are rolling out extensive coverage of the Jan. 20 inauguration and its preceding events. Plans that will include a full-court press of the top anchors and correspondents, web streaming of events and, in some cases, extensive radio. All three broadcast nets will also feature an hour of primetime and also capped several days of heavy coverage.

"It's more of an inaugural week than Inauguration Day." The ABC News chief Washington correspondent George Stephanopoulos added this comment on Tuesday.

In primetime, CBS anchor namely Katie Couric will anchor a one-hour special at 9 p.m. ET about the first hours of the Obama administration. Channels like NBC and ABC will have their own hour long specials at 10 p.m. ET. For its part, NBC is not aired an hour long inauguration special since the year 1993 when Clinton was inaugurated.

It is one of the last times in recent memory that there has been such a changing of the guard at the White House. Between years 1997 and 2005, it was the beginning of the second term of a sitting president. In the year 2000, because of the lengthy court battle over the results, there was not as much time to plan the pomp and circumstance.

"It's going to be an incredibly historic day in our country's history," added CBS News president Sean McManus.

The networks saw intense interest in the presidential campaign and election that has carried on the transition. CBS has logged its highest ratings in two decades for its "60 Minutes" sitdown with the President-elect and Michelle Obama.

Stephanopoulos, who will act as co-anchor along with people like Charles Gibson and Diane Sawyer .The same ABC team that anchored throughout the primaries, convention and election night commented that this inauguration is unusual in certain respects.

"Here you've got the drama of the changing of the guard combined with a barrier-breaking president and the biggest challenge the country has ever faced probably since FDR was inaugurated," added Stephanopoulos.

The day will begin for the networks between 5-7 a.m. ET, when the morning shows set up the event at Capitol Hill. Many of the anchor platforms will be set up around the Mall in Washington, with CNN and ABC at the Newseum and MSNBC on the mall itself. Major coverage will take place starting from around 10:30 a.m., when the Barack Obama’s  visit to the White House for the traditional tea before the president and president-elect take the motorcade only a short distance to Capitol Hill where the swearing in will take place. There are other events throughout the day and it includes a long parade that will be televised by all the major networks.