"i watch only watch rome from HBO, which is made by BBC."

Rome is not made by BBC, it is a HBO show that the BBC co-produces. From Wikipedia:

"In 2002, HBO and the BBC agreed to co-produce a new series based on the events of the "Roman Revolution": Rome. Towards that end, the two networks committed a US$100 million budget to the production of twelve 1-hour episodes, with HBO contributing US$85 million, and the BBC contributing US$15 million."

HBO shows do pretty well on UK TV. Not always big numbers, but big on the channels that show them, and they generally get a lot of critical acclaim from British TV critics. The Sopranos and Six Feet Under are big shows for Channel 4, Deadwood was pretty big on Sky, Rome does well on BBC2. The Wire is a big show on FX UK, as is Carnivàle, though the channel itself has a small share.
Not all of the half-hour comedies have faired as well. Sex In The City was absolutely huge here, but Curb Your Enthusiasm did poorly originally on BBC2 until they decided to re-run it from the start on BBC4 (a smaller, more specialised channel). Entourage is a bit buried on ITV2, but they are still showing it, and doing cross-marketing and targeted promotion for it, so it may yet pick up a bigger audience. Some of the HBO series and mini-series, Rome, Extras, Band of Brothers have been co-productions with the BBC and so have had a lot of impact.
Personally I can't get enough of the HBO shows, they have consistantly featured among my favourite TV shows. Though, despite my high respect for the network, I would happily bludgeon to death the HBO exec who cancelled Deadwood. Because HBO shows are on channels in the UK which are either free-to-air, or standard cable/satellite, the proportion of people who can see them is probably bigger than in the USA. That means they can even build a mass audience, the way Sex In The City did on Channel 4.

I wonder if it will show progs that are "current" in the HBO schedules in the US. I will get it for free due to the package I have with Virgin Media, but I'll reserve my judgement until I see what shows will air in the UK.

Can't really speak for most people in the UK, but when I lived over there The Sopranos were hugely popular. Actually, the shows my friends talk about most are US shows, including 24 and Lost.

i watch only watch rome from HBO, which is made by BBC. The shows on HBO are good quality, but i prefer british tv shows. i wont be able to get hbo on demand anyway, because we have satllite tv, where we cant get things on demand.