As we reported yesterday, the Big Ten Network just signed a carriage agreement with Time Warner Cable on Monday, following its deal with Comcast that was reached in June.
Wednesday, August 27, 2008
Charter, Big Ten Network Come to Terms
A wise man once said that there's nothing that makes a person more productive than the last minute. The cable industry and the Big Ten Network are apparently taking that credo to heart, as Charter Communications yesterday became the latest cable operator to ink a carriage deal with the Big Ten Network. That deal only covers Charter cable customers in Ohio, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Michigan and Illinois but it does come before the Big Ten football season kicks off this Saturday. More from TV Week, including the joint statement.
Tuesday, August 26, 2008
Big Ten Network Finally Gets Time Warner Deal
After nearly two years of negotiations, the Big Ten Network has come to terms with Time Warner Cable, following a similar agreement with Comcast in June. TV Week reports that the Comcast deal pays the Big Ten Network 70 cents per subscriber in Big Ten markets and places the network on the a la carte digital sports tier in the rest of the country -- an arrangement that set the bar for the Time Warner Cable deal.
The Big Ten football season kicks off this Saturday.
ESPNU HD Launching This Week
As we reported back in May, ESPNU will this week become the next network in the ESPN family to offer a high-def feed when it broadcasts the Vanderbilt vs. Miami (OH) college football game this Thursday at 7:30PM EDT. According to Multichannel News, ESPNU HD has carriage agreements in place with five service providers: Time Warner Cable, Verizon FiOS, RCN, Atlantic Broadband and Broadstripe.
ESPN is in negotiations with Comcast for distribution of ESPNU HD.
Monday, August 25, 2008
Comcast to Carry FX & Speed in High-Def
Comcast has reached a deal with Fox Cable Networks to carry the HD versions of FX and the Speed Channel, Multichannel News reports. Comcast already offers FX HD and Speed HD to its customers in Chicago and south-central Pennsylvania (Hershey and Harrisburg) and expects to make the two HD nets available to all of its basic high-def customers by the end of next year.
Thursday, August 21, 2008
Today's High-Def Headlines
Pity the Los Angeles residents who lug home pricey high-definition television sets only to find that most of their shows don't look much better. The entertainment capital of the world ranks last among the five biggest U.S. markets in the number of high-definition channels available to cable-TV subscribers. New York, Chicago, Houston and Philadelphia all get far more, as do such smaller cities as San Diego and Charlotte, N.C.
AT&T has shifted into overdrive on subscriber acquisition for U-verse TV, shooting to nearly double its midyear count to end 2008 with 1 million customers. A compelling high-definition lineup is a crucial part of meeting that goal, says Dan York, AT&T’s executive vice president of content. But he notes that the telco needs to balance channel counts with programming costs. York recently spoke with Multichannel News technology editor Todd Spangler about the HD arms race, as well as multiplatform content distribution and the challenges of cutting deals in a business driven by volume discounts.
It appears the TV industry's self-prescribed medicine of pushing smaller flat-panel sets is working. The second-quarter check-up is in, and the industry is in far better health than a year ago. DisplaySearch's Quarterly Global TV Shipment and Forecast Report was released Thursday, and worldwide TV shipments increased 11 percent from the same period in 2007, but just 3 percent from first quarter of 2008.
Paramount Home Entertainment revealed a special Blu-ray Disc promotion Wednesday that will give consumers a $10 upgrade rebate for upgrading their Paramount and DreamWorks DVDs with Blu-ray versions of the same titles. The promotion, which begins with the Sept. 2 release of “Transformers,” will enable purchasers to mail-in promotional certificates located in the packaging of the Blu-ray products, along with the proof-of-purchase tabs from both the DVD and Blu-ray versions.
Worldwide Microsoft has become the leading provider of IPTV services to some of the world’s largest telcos, including AT&T in the United States. Jim Baldwin, senior director of engineering, at Microsoft Mediaroom talks about some of the advantages that IPTV offers the telcos in the race to add more HD content.
Wednesday, August 20, 2008
Comcast Adds 15 New HD Channels in Chicago
Comcast cable customers in the Windy City have reason to be happy today with the news that they now can get 15 more high-def channels. The new additions are: Bravo HD (channel 278), CNBC HD (266), Fox News Channel HD (265), FX HD (267), QVC HD (282), The Weather Channel HD (270), Encore HD (263), Fox Business Network HD (264), Fuse HD (279), IFC HD (280), WE HD (281), Hallmark Movie Channel HD (227), NBA TV HD (235), NHL TV HD (234) and Speed Channel HD (237). H/t to MCN for the news.
Monday, August 18, 2008
Today's High-Def Headlines
After losing out in the battle to define the high-definition successor to the DVD, Toshiba Corp. has turned its attention to the next best thing: the DVD player. Today, the Japanese electronics company is releasing a DVD player that it says does more than previous models to improve the look of standard-definition DVDs on high-definition TVs. The XD-E500 will sell for a suggested price of $149.99, twice as much as regular "upconverting" players, which also improve the look of a DVD, but less than half the price of a Blu-ray player.
TV shipments for North America hit record growth levels in the second quarter, despite a weaker U.S. economy, said DisplaySearch. TV shipments rose 28 percent compared to the same quarter last year to more than 9.3 million units, according to preliminary DisplaySearch findings, marking the strongest quarterly results since the research firm began tracking TV shipments in 2004, it said.
Comcast customers in suburban Harrisburg and Hershey, Pa. will have 10 more HD channels and four more standard-definition channels to choose from Friday when the cable operator completes its latest channel expansion in the area. Additional HD networks that will be added to the Comcast lineup in Hershey and Harrisburg’s suburban areas include: AMC HD, Animal Planet HD, Big Ten Network HD, CNN HD, Fox News Channel HD, FX HD, The History Channel HD, NHL Network HD, Speed Channel HD and The Weather Channel HD.
Panasonic claimed its entire 2008 line of 1080p Viera plasma HDTVs are rated to last 100,000 hours before reaching half its original brightness. The claim is based upon the U.S. average daily viewing time of 6.5 hours; Panasonic 1080p plasma HDTVs could on average take more than 42 years to reach half of their original brightness level.
Wednesday, August 13, 2008
Today's High-Def Headlines
MTV Networks’ high-definition music channel MHD will change its name to Palladia effective Sept. 1. Palladia will offer more exclusive programming as part of its evolution, kicking off with “Outdoor Music Week” the first week of September. The lineup of outdoor music concerts will feature Madonna, Usher, Dave Matthews Band, Eric Clapton, John Mayer, Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, the Who, Green Day, Genesis, Jay-Z, Amy Winehouse, Foo Fighters, Kanye West, David Bowie, Snoop Dogg, Sugarland, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Dierks Bentley, Hank Williams Jr., Queen, Will Smith and the Rolling Stones.
Verizon said today that it has added 23 new channels, including 18 in high-definition (HD), to its Pittsburg-area lineup. With the recent additions, Verizon said that its FiOS TV service now offers more HD channels than Comcast in the Pittsburg area. FiOS TV customers in the area now have more than 440 HD choices available at any time, with a total of 45 HD channels and more than 400 HD video-on-demand (VOD) titles offered each month.
Fujifilm bolstered its holiday line, due to ship in September, with its first digital camera to record HD movies. The S2000HD In a shift, two of three new cameras announced by Fujifilm today will accept only SDHC memory cards and not xD Picture Card memory. Previously, the company had incorporated dual memory card slots into all of its cameras.
Monday, August 11, 2008
Today's High-Def Headlines
Encore HD is looking for some encores. The enhanced simulcast version of the channel had its first launch on DISH Network on Aug. 1. Encore HD, which became available July 15, has also been rolled out on Insight Communications systems serving the Bowling Green, Ky., market. Starz Entertainment executive vice president of sales and marketing Ed Huguez said Comcast has made a commitment to launch Encore HD, “hopefully by year-end.”
Hitachi Releases New Blu-ray Camcorder - TWICE
Hitachi will ship a new Blu-ray Disc camcorders to dealers in September. The new DZ-BD10HA replaces Hitachi's previous Blu-ray disc camcorder. The new model will be 20 percent smaller than the previous BD7HA model and offer a new 7-megapixel CMOS sensor along with the ability to record HD video to Blu-ray disc, a 30GB hard disc drive or an SDHC flash memory card.
Wednesday, August 06, 2008
Today's High-Def Headlines
Sharp said Tuesday it has expanded its SB series entry line of high-definition LCD TVs. Models in the series include the 52-inch LC-52SB55U ($2,299 suggested retail) and the 46-inch LC-46SB54U ($1,699), both of which are shipping now, and the 42-inch LC-42SB45U ($1,399), which ships in September. All are Full HD 1080p capable and feature glossy piano-black bezel cosmetic styling.
NBC Universal said it has reached agreements with a run of cable operators to offer video-on-demand coverage of the Olympics, including replays of events. After the Games launch Friday, VOD offerings--which are updated daily--will include some five to 10 of the top events in a particular day, as well as highlights from some 15 sports.
Versus sports network is expanding its schedule of televised college football games, increasing its coverage to 23 games from the Mountain West Conference, Pac-10, Big 12 and Ivy League this year. Last year the network broadcast 19 matchups, including two major collegiate upsets (Stanford over No. 2 USC and Oregon State over No. 2 Cal). That was an increase from nine games in 2006, when the network first began carrying college football.
Monday, August 04, 2008
DisplaySearch HDTV Conference Coming to L.A. September 15-17
One of the best HD industry confabs around is coming up next month in Hollywood, as DisplaySearch's annual HDTV Conference hits Tinseltown from September 15-17th. I went last year and can vouch for the thought-provoking lineup of speakers and panel topics. One of my favorite industry gurus, ESPN HD honcho Bryan Burns, will again be providing his insights at this year's DisplaySearch gathering, among many other notable VIPs.
More info here, including how you can register. See you in L.A.!
(In the interests of full disclosure, DisplaySearch isn't paying me to say any of this, although I'd gladly take their money if they wanted to throw some my way.)
Today's High-Def Headlines
Big Ten Network Ready for '08 Season - MCN
After seeing an ongoing slowdown in customer growth, Charlie Ergen’s Dish Network actually lost 25,000 subscribers in the second quarter, the satellite company reported Monday. DISH Network, which ended the quarter with roughly 13.79 million subscribers, set an ignominious mark in the process.
It’s August and for football players that means the grind of two-a-day workouts. For those trying to secure Big Ten Network carriage deals with Time Warner Cable, Mediacom and Charter Communications, it hasn’t gotten to that point — yet.
Plasma is dead. Front and rear projection? Fuggeddaboutit. LCD has a few good years left, and then it's sayonara, baby. TV technology's future lies in tiny phosphorescent molecules. Organic light-emitting diodes--OLEDs--employ a thin layer of organic material that emits light when electricity passes through it. OLED displays need no backlight, so they're ultrathin and flexible.
LG Electronics unveiled at its summer line show Thursday night its first LED-based LCD TV and a third-generation Blu-ray Disc player that will be compatible with the Netflix instant-streaming video service. In addition the company showed the latest additions to its flagship Scarlet LCD TVs — a pair of 1.8-inch deep 1080p LCD TVs, and revealed plans for a new nationwide TV recycling program.
VIZIO, America's fastest growing HDTV company, is launching a new media campaign tied to its HD Sponsorship of NBC's 2008 Olympic Games broadcast. The ad campaign is designed to fuel VIZIO's meteoric growth by introducing feature-rich products, rivaling or outperforming their competitors' premium lines, while maintaining the company's commitment to value pricing.
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