Cable systems often put one or two premium services on VHF channels (which I have on very good authority end at channel 13) and trapped the signal with a notch filter for those homes who do not subscribe to the service. When a subscriber moves, if the subscriber has no cable box or returned it to the office, the cable company will often do what is called a "no-truck disconnect." The cable company will not take the effort to roll a truck out to physically disconnect the drop, but instead put it on a list for a slow day (which often never comes.)
If you soon after came along and subscribed, then it is very likely that the cable company lost track of the fact that the previous customer subscribed to HBO, and that the trap was not in place.
Alternately, if you were the original subscriber and had the drop wired to house, it is possible that the install techs neglected to install the channel 5 filter in the first place, so the cable company would not have caught the error until they eventually got around to performing an audit in your neighborhood.
In either case, I doubt that the same holds for the digital HBO in the clear that John W. reported. I don't know of any QAM channels that are physically trapped, but instead are given conditional access that requires an STB.
John----- Original Message ----- From: "Tom Barry" <trbarry@xxxxxxxxxxx>
Back in Detroit on MediaOne->AT&T->Comcast (same cable subscription) I could get one channel of HBO as something like channel 5 analog for the longest time, maybe 10-20 years without subscribing to anything more than (extended?) basic cable. Because of the channel placement I had to assume it was on purpose and they knew about it. Whatever reason, maybe that carries over to digital.
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