I thought we were supposed to be enjoying 15 more hd channels by now.

<in a Maxwell Smart voice> "Missed it by THAT much!"

I never new digital television promised that :D

How dare they only have 85 HD channels!!!!! I wanted 100 even though half of them don't even offer any HD programming!!!!!

"Up to 100 channels"


that was their claim.

I never new digital television promised that :D

"Up to 100 channels"


that was their claim.

Ding, Ding, Ding..we have some winners

How many times are we going to have to see this thread?

Heck, even Time Warner and Cox have provided "Up to 100 channels". :)

I have 100 channels...of course i'm counting HD RSNs as well...lol

DTV = Digital TV, as in over the air

D* = DirecTV

Topic title changed.

I thought we were supposed to be enjoying 15 more hd channels by now."As many as..."
"Up to...."

I can get "up to" 1,000 channels OTA...

The only time they didn't use "up to", they were very vague on what constitutes an HD "channel". They even followed up that announcement by saying that they would likely be including NFL ST and other subscription sports channels in the count. That's when the cablecos all issued their own releases stating numbers from 250-800 channels by the end of the year. Comcast even claimed that their Philly system currently already has 199 HD channels. Afterall, if D* is going to claim 9 NFL ST channels, why can't cable claim an On Demand channel.

Shortly after that announcement, D* began to switch to the "up to 100" claim and put a stricter definition on what constitutes a channel (full time cablenet or RSN, including the 8 DNS channels and HD PPV channels in their count).

They ended up at 85 channels. Considering they began the year at 9 or 10 - I'd say there's not a lot of grief to give their 85 channels. That's well within a reasonable range of "up to 100" - especially since many of these channels didn't exist at the time, and could very well have been pushed to January by the network themselves for one reason or another.

The original press release:

DIRECTV to Offer 100 National HD Channels in 2007

LAS VEGAS--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jan. 8, 2007--DIRECTV, the nation's leading satellite television service provider, is hailing 2007 as the "Year of HD" with the planned launch and carriage of 100 national high-definition (HD) channels. With this substantial HD muscle, DIRECTV will offer three-times more HD programming than any other multi-channel distributor, with the majority of these channels launching in Q3.

DIRECTV also announced today that it currently has signed agreements, or agreements in principle, with more than 70 major networks including:

-- A&E -- National Geographic
-- Bravo -- NFL Network
-- Cartoon Network -- SciFi Channel
-- CNN -- Speed
-- Food Network -- TBS
-- FX -- The History Channel
-- HGTV -- The Weather Channel
-- MTV -- USA Network

DIRECTV will also extend its leadership in HD sports programming by offering hundreds of games and other HD programming available from Regional Sports Networks (RSNs) around the country, including YES Network, Comcast Sports Net, New England Sports Network and FOX Sports.

To satisfy the insatiable appetite for a greater number of movies in HD, DIRECTV will offer an expanded line-up of HD programming available from all premium movie channels.

"This is DIRECTV's break-out year for HD," said Chase Carey, president and CEO, DIRECTV, Inc. "The launch of our two new satellites will complete the largest capacity expansion in DIRECTV history, and no other video service will be able to match the sheer volume and quality of our HD programming. With HD adoption now reaching critical mass in the U.S., and 40 million homes projected to have HD-capable TVs this year, DIRECTV will be uniquely positioned as the best choice for HD programming."

With the launch of DIRECTV 10 and DIRECTV 11 satellites in 2007, DIRECTV will have the ability to deliver more than 1,500 local HD and digital channels and 150 national HD channels, in addition to new advanced programming services for customers.

DIRECTV currently offers standard-definition local channels in 142 markets, covering nearly 94 percent of television households in the country, as well as local HD broadcast channels in 49 cities, representing more than 65 percent of U.S. TV households.

http://phx.corporate-ir.net/phoenix.zhtml?c=127160&p=irol-newsArticle&ID=948332&highlight

Yep, that's the one. From January of '07.

The original press release:

DIRECTV, the nation's leading satellite television service provider, is hailing 2007 as the "Year of HD" with the planned launch and carriage of 100 national high-definition (HD) channels.

Planned, being the key word.

So, Ken, you really have become the consummate DirecTV apologist. I think DirecTV has definitely engaged in a lot of programming sophistry and people are now, rightfully, complaining about it. I understand they're covered with their use of language; I'm sure B. Clinton helped them out there. Also, they never really should have said up to 100, considering there really isn't that much HD programming out there from a network point of view.
Drex

Well this has a simple answer...

Just look at the sticky thread.

There are ~15 channels that had announced as being carried 'soon' (fall/winter or whatever). Well... they can't add those network until they actually go HD... you can't blame DirecTV for that.

Let's see:

Even without counting PPV, I get 102 by the end of the year. That counts the part-time RSNs and the DNS channels, but why not count them?

So, Ken, you really have become the consummate DirecTV apologist. I think DirecTV has definitely engaged in a lot of programming sophistry and people are now, rightfully, complaining about it. I understand they're covered with their use of language; I'm sure B. Clinton helped them out there. Also, they never really should have said up to 100, considering there really isn't that much HD programming out there from a network point of view.
Drex

A number of the networks seemed to have executive management delusion disorder. The management assumed switching to HD would be much simpler for their individual network/channel than it was.

Is it DirecTV's fault that the networks are behind their own schedules as they knew them in January 2007?

So, Ken, you really have become the consummate DirecTV apologist. I think DirecTV has definitely engaged in a lot of programming sophistry and people are now, rightfully, complaining about it. I understand they're covered with their use of language; I'm sure B. Clinton helped them out there. Also, they never really should have said up to 100, considering there really isn't that much HD programming out there from a network point of view.
Drex

Exactly what channels are you missing that are currently available?

To the original poster

Who cares????

So let's go back a decade and parse every single CES press release and see how many claimed advances never showed up.

(Brighter, thinner, cheaper SED anyone?)

Or today's Comcast claim that it will offer "1,000 HD choices" in 2008, (by adding HD VOD selections).

Surely that Coimcast boast is far more cynical, misleading (and far more deliberate) than DirecTV saying it would have 100 HD channels by the end of the year.

If you recall, many of those HD channels had not been officially announced yet and many network executives had to scramble to catch up to the DirecTV announcement.

I'd say that considering one planned satellite launch was postponed until 2008, D* came pretty far in 2007. (Farther than any of its competitors, by the way.)

Hopefully someone else will help pull the HD train this year: competition always speeds things up.

I think that most people gave DirecTV a pass on this 100 HD channel claim (if you aren't going to have 100 HD channels, then why put that number in your press release, especially when you are likely to come up short?) because DirecTV appeared to make a good faith effort to add as much HD as they could, and second, because it looked like many of the channels themselves really weren't ready to be in HD. With all of the "fake" HD channels out there or ones that have less than 10 hrs a week, its hard to put DirecTV to the flames ask for more of the same in order to pad the numbers to reach the 100 HD channel count.

I still wish that Dish Network would outright drop TBS-HD. They were right to be the only ones to not carry that channel, only to cave in to pressures during TBS-HD's only HD run of a few MLB playoff games.

im my opinion there aren't enough stations broadcasting HD.. i think D* can provide 100 channels but there aren't 100 HD stations out there...

How many times are we going to have to see this thread?
Hey, something has to compete with all the “I dropped HBO” threads. ;)

So, Ken, you really have become the consummate DirecTV apologist. I think DirecTV has definitely engaged in a lot of programming sophistry and people are now, rightfully, complaining about it. I understand they're covered with their use of language; I'm sure B. Clinton helped them out there. Also, they never really should have said up to 100, considering there really isn't that much HD programming out there from a network point of view.
DrexSo, Drex5000, you can really kiss my ***.

In no way do I condone how they advertise their product. All I did was show how they justify what they say.

I'm jaded to the point I look at all HD claims, from DBS and Cable, as always suspect.

We're all jaded. That's why we all screamed "BS" when they followed up that press release with a statement saying they may include NFL ST, MLB EI, etc. At that point, for all we knew, we may only see those 16 "real" channels added. Once they switched to "up to 100" and it was clear that the majority would be full time channels supplied by the cable networks, everyone relaxed a bit.

As long as companies have marketing departments, we'll continue to have to read the fine print and carefully parse the words. If you choose to put in your own definitions, you're always going to be disappointed.

If you look at the D* rollout thread stickied, you'll see that we broke down the list into specific categories so you could evalute the lineup with what ever channel criteria you desire. Personally, I don't even count full time RSN HD channels as "national" channels - regardless if they are available nationally.

But how you or I count them has nothing to do with how D* does. If you want to gripe about D*'s claim, it has to be in the context of D*'s definitions and fine print.

But how many have real HD showing at any given time?:)

Yea if I had D* I wouldn't care if they only had 85. I'm waiting for some smartass cable company to bring a lawsuit.

But how many have real HD showing at any given time?:)

Yea if I had D* I wouldn't care if they only had 85. I'm waiting for some smartass cable company to bring a lawsuit.

I doubt any cable companies file a lawsuit considering many of them can't even get up to 10 HD channels going let alone 85.

I doubt any cable companies file a lawsuit considering many of them can't even get up to 10 HD channels going let alone 85.
tell me about it. Comcast in my area has maybe 15-20 HD channels (including the OTA networks), yet they constantly run ads saying they have much more HD than satellite. Maybe they use golf math...the lower score is better?

Granted, the channels they have include almost all the ones I actaully watch, so they have enough for my tastes, but it still doesn't make what they say true - no matter how you spin it.

tell me about it. Comcast in my area has maybe 15-20 HD channels (including the OTA networks), yet they constantly run ads saying they have much more HD than satellite. Maybe they use golf math...the lower score is better?

Granted, the channels they have include almost all the ones I actaully watch, so they have enough for my tastes, but it still doesn't make what they say true - no matter how you spin it.

Mediacom in my area doesn't even have the locals in HD! I get KWWL and WKBT (NBC, CBS). No clue why KCRG isn't in there. My low budget Fox station doesn't even broadcast in HD so right now I get a whopping 4 HD channels with two of them being the ESPN's for 70 bucks a month. Mediacom likes to run ads too claiming they offer the best HD as well including ALL the OTA's. BS!

What a Wonderful World of "up to 100" channels of HD. :)

Really DirecTV is being conservative. As someone mentioned, they could claim over 100 right now and even maybe over 110 if they used the same definition that Time Warner uses for an channel.