Today's High-Def Headlines

Vudu Takes High-Def Movies Higher - MCN
Startup Vudu this week will begin offering 65 feature movie titles in 1080p high-definition video format via its Internet-connected set-top, in a bid to peel home-theater aficionados from cable and satellite video-on-demand services. The movies, priced for a la carte rental, include Chronicles of Riddick, The Spiderwick Chronicles, In Bruges, Speed Racer and classics such as Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Chinatown, and Saturday Night Fever.

Matsushita Renamed Panasonic Worldwide - TWICE
Matsushita Electric Industrial (MEIC) celebrates its 90th anniversary today in an unusual way — by changing its long-vaunted Matsushita name (which honored its iconic founder) to that of its better-known brand, Panasonic, to leverage a digital network product strategy to address the global market.

DirecTV Adds Local HD To Four Markets - MCN
DirecTV Wednesday added local HDTV programming in Charleston, S.C., Norfolk-Newport News, Va., Savannah, Ga., and Springfield-Holyoke, Mass. With the addition of those markets, the satellite provider now offers local HD broadcast channels in 98 cities, representing more than 83% of TV households.

Thin Still In At CEATEC - TWICE
Flat-panel TV designs at the 2008 CEATEC Expo, here, are compressing almost as fast as the banking industry, as virtually every major Japanese television manufacturer used the show to unveil their latest skinny flat-panel technologies. Many of the sets being unveiled here as breakthroughs were seen three weeks earlier at CEDIA Expo in Denver and the IFA Show in Berlin.

FiOS, U-Verse Tops In Customer Satisfaction: J.D. Power Survey - MCN
Verizon Communications Inc.'s FiOS and AT&T Inc.'s U-verse video services have jumped to the top of the regional customer satisfaction rankings, according to a J.D. Power survey, supplanting direct-broadcast satellite services as the traditional leaders and pushing incumbent cable providers further down the list. According to findings of J.D. Power's "2008 Residential Television Service Satisfaction Study," AT&T came in on top in three regions: north central, west and south. In the east, Verizon was the top scoring provider.

Senate Analog Nightlight Bill Introduced - B&C
A bill was introduced in the Senate that would allow broadcasters to continue broadcasting in analog for 30 days after the Feb. 17, 2009, date for TV stations to transition to full-power digital TV. Broadcasters would still transition their primary channel feeds to digital Feb. 17, but they could continue to broadcast DTV-education information and emergency information for that 30-day period. The analog cutoff is currently set, by statute, for Feb. 17.