Comcast HDTV - Page 2

I was not speaking of Boston in particular. I have been told by the people in charge of finding bandwidth in Boston that it is a real problem. They had to drop an IN HD channel just to add CBS in time for the Super Bowl. I was speaking of the Philadelphia market and nationally. I know that UPN 57 will be added in the Philly market in the fall. Comcast continues to add SD fair, such as the new SD sports tier which eats into bandwidth available for HD. I have been told repeeatedly by the individuals who are negotiating national carrriage deals for HD providers such as HD Net, Bravo, TNT and the like that there is nothing out there on the immediate horizon. There have been good and substantial talks with HD Net but nothing is imminent. Should I hear more, I will let you know. You should be aware that Comcast personnel monitor this forum, including some at the highest levels down on Market Street in Philadelphia. I am not one however.

JWhip, thanks again for your information. I am glad that Comcast management monitors this site. They can see our interest in expanding Comcast's offerings. but also see how grateful we are when we do get something, such as DiscoveryHD. Each time they do add significant HD content the chance of losing an HD subscriber to satellites diminishes. The fact that there have been "good and substantial" talks with HDNET is also encouraging, although we'll just have to be patient.

CycloneGT, yes I've checked BravoHD+'s lineup and I know that I would only like maybe 25-40% of their programming and that they do excessive repeats (I think an 8 hour block repeated 3 times each day). However, I know that, except for NBA, I would watch no TNT-HD shows at all. My wife and I like the non-commercial programming and BravoHD+ has plays, non-rock concerts, operas, ballets etc.

Rich N.

The one (ONLY) thing I'm missing on TNT is "The Grid".

Dear Comcast Execs,

Thank you for adding Discovery-HD and the great Sox games on INHD. Keep up the good work and I promise you, you will not lose my business to satellite companies, ever.

Gus in Massachusetts.

Don't ever say never (or "not ... ever."). Competition makes the world go 'round (and makes your HD better).

Never is a long time.

Find out when the analog contract between Comcast and Sinclair for those stations expires. That will give you a rough estimate of when you will see the HD feeds for those stations.

Why? I don't think Comcast will agree to a new analog retransmission contract without also getting the digital/HD retransmission rights. Since analog is currently Sinclair's bread and butter-- can you say "advertising revenue"-- Sinclair won't last long at the bargaining table without giving up the digital/HD rights.

So... SonomaSearcher, following that bit of logic, do you have any idea when the analog contracts between Cox and Comcast expire? I'd love to get CBS here in Seattle and I know you want to see Fox down in the Bay area.

Cox & Comcast? *scratches head* did I miss something?

Cox Enterprises owns many assets, including a majority interest in Cox Cable (a publicly traded corporation) and a sole interest in its Cox Television and Cox Radio divisions. Cox Television owns many local television stations around the country, including the CBS affiliate in Seattle and the Fox affiliate in San Francisco Bay Area.

Inexplicably, Cox Cable believes it should get digital/HD signals from local stations at no extra cost above whatever it is compensating the local station for the analog signal, whereas Cox Television takes the opposite position-- it wants extra compensation for its digital/HD signals. Can you make any sense out of that discrepancy?

So no Cox-owned stations have their digital HD signal on Comcast yet (also includes the ABC affiliate in Atlanta and the NBC affiliate in Pittsburgh, among others), and likely won't until the analog contracts expire.

What i would like to know, in detail is when will i have cbs hi-def in sacrmento, ca. as this too is sheetclair owned ...sorry i couldnt resist;-]???

Can't say for sure, but they typically expire at the end of a calendar year. An educated guess would be December 31, 2005, but it also could be December 31, 2004.

Read the following for some valuable perspective:

Reprint Article from January 20, 2003 Issue of Multichannel News

Article from April 19, 2004 Issue of Cableworld Magazine

SonomaSearcher:

I have spoken to representatives from both Comcast and Sinclair over this issue. I don't know about what else Sinclair and Comcast have to bargain with except Fox45 and WB in my area. I do know that negotiations are in process, but I have not received encouraging news from either side. Sinclair wishes to be paid for its digital signal and I think its analog signal for Fox and UPN are covered by "must carry" rules, so I don't know if Comcast can tie the HD and analog carriage together like that.

Anyway, it is very upsetting. You'd think Sinclair would want its HD Fox signal on Comcast, since in our market ABC, CBS and NBC are on and when I surf, Fox isn't in the equation. I guess that doesn't matter, since Nielsen doesn't count HD ratings.

I'm trying to be hopeful, but the last thing the Sinclair representative told me was he hoped I would become a "Fox OTA HD viewer". Not very reassuring. And Sinclair's home office is 5 miles from my home in Baltimore County and its flagship channels are not on its home cable system.

This is similar to the Cox Television vs. Comcast issue that another person mentioned earlier in the thread.

Oh well, I'll just have to find someone or some bar with OTA HDTV for the Super Bowl, and miss the Fox MLB and NFL playoff games in HD.

Rich N.

Thanks for your explanation on that, I used to work for Cox a couple of years ago but had no idea they owned local stations.

The concept of giving the public what it wants/needs seems to play no part in these negociations. God speed to those who live under these areas.

They can sure try, but there's nothing, to my knowledge, that legally binds these two together.

Last year when ESPN went hd for comcast, i believe it was launched simultaneously across all markets just in time for football season. I am wondering if FOX will be the same for markets that has the splicer installed.

My curiosity is really bugging me on the way comcast rolls out new channels though, and I don't understand why they are stagging Discovery as slow (at least to my perception) as they are if there is such a large demand for it.

I have been wondering if we should compile a calendar of the discovery roll out that we could use to reference the roll-out of future channels.

The other question I have is if comcast has a call center in every market they service? I couldnt see that as being feasable, and that is why it kind of surprises me that jacksonville, FL is so low on the totem pole, even though we have a good sized call center here for comcast.

Also wonder if Comcast is holding out posting the new HD channels on their site for after adding more channels to the lineup. Just checked now and they have yet to post the included Discovery HD as a HD channel that they offer. Could they be in the works to add another channel real soon?

Must carry rules currently allow a station to elect either the analog or the digital signal as must carry, but not both. Most network affiliates, however, do not use must carry at all. Instead, they decline to elect "must carry" status and negotiate retransmission contracts.

So I doubt that Sinclair uses "must carry" for its Fox and WB stations in your area. Instead, it probably has a contract with Comcast which contains some exchange of consideration between Sinclair and Comcast-- likely some type of advertising is involved. So Comcast doesn't pay money for the analog signal, but perhaps buys some advertising on the Sinclair analog channel. (Do you ever see any Comcast ads on your Fox or WB analog channels?)

In all probability, Sinclair will not elect "must carry" for these analog signals when the current contract expires. And if "must carry" is not part of the equation, then negotiation for the digital/HD signals as part of a retransmission contract is fair game.

So, if Comcast is going to compensate-- in one way or another-- Sinclair for the analog signals of your Fox and WB stations after the current analog contract expires, I am convinced that Comast will not agree to any further analog retransmission while not also getting digital retransmission rights.

That is why I suggest you try to find out when the analog contract(s) expire. It will give you a very good idea of when Sinclair and Comcast will be forced to come to terms over the digital signals-- otherwise, it will turn into one of those ugly public disputes where the analog signals disappear from Comcast's lineup and Sinclair's advertising revenue takes a dramatic drop. (What, if anything, will advertisers pay when Sinclair's stations suddenly have no cable viewers?)

And there are Avsforum members who have the contacts or connections to privately find out this information for you, as you well know.

Good luck.

What do I want to be added to our HD lineup?

Thanks for asking...

I would love a PPV-HD movies channel (they have one on D*, from what I understand)...

Also, I would like HD on On Demand, I use on demand A LOT. More than I ever ever thought I would, so this would be a major bonus for me.

Sports, eh, not really for me... I have all the HD movie stations, though TMC would be a nice include. I don't know much about other HD channels at this point, and UPN/WB, are basically unwatchable for me.

So, to recap:

1. PPV-HD - Would stop me from going to blockbuster, that's for sure.
2. HD-On Demand - I use OD a lot, and would like this enhancement.

BTW, you well-read Comcast execs, just tell me where to send my resume, and I'll enhance your team, I'm sure there's not a ton of women in your offices who can strategize what the small but growing populations of Techie-AVSie Girls would like to see.

Thank you!

I am afraid that is probably wishful thinking on your part. The website update reflecting the addition of Discovery HD and the local WB digital (sometimes HD) channels didn't happen until a couple of weeks after the channels showed up unannounced as usual. There has still been no system message via the STB announcing the availability of either channel, but they sure told us about the exciting new jewelry shopping channel that they added.

One word, bandwidth

I have a new channel, 168 in jacksonville, that is PPVHD. Im wondering if this is only going to be on for the tyson fight, or if it will become a permanent addition. Any ideas?

Probably not permanent because they don't have it set up yet to deliver HD PPV 24/7 with different HD movies, shows, events, etc. (or anything close to 24/7).

So it would just waste bandwith or other technical resources for it to remain.

No HD PPV showing up on Comcast out here (as of 9:30 this morning).

Well, Discovery HD is finally up and running here in Los Angeles. yay!

another question...

with fox having the splicer installed in my local area now, according to that thread, is it possible we could get fox before football season, understanding that it would be SD until that time, or do you think comcast will roll it out slow like discovery and ill get it in time for the superbowl, which is here in town, but not before? i know thats kind of a pescimistic attitude, but thats where i am right now with comcast.

im starting to believe ignorance is bliss. before i started reading this forum, i didnt know about other markets quite as much so i wasnt bothered by not having it.

I'm sure if Comcast can get the local Fox they would. Our local Fox affiliate is owned by Sinclair (same with our WB) and they and Comcast will not agree on carriage for the Digital Signal. So while your local Fox station can do HD, you may never get it without an antenna. It depends on who owns it. If it is a Fox "owned-and-operated" station I would think you'd have the digital channel already. Cox also owns stations that won't agree to have the digital signal on Comcast.

Good Luck,

Rich N.

its owned by the evil empire known as clear channel. i think they are synonymous with cancer.

Clear Channel owns UPN, FOX and CBS here.

CBS has been HD for over a year...

If your CBS HD is on Comcast and it's Clear Channel's station, I don't see why they wouldn't also give Comcast the Fox HD (digital) signal.

just noticed channel 225 here in dallas, listed with no description, and 'to be announced' on the schedule.

later
chas

We've had one of those for a couple of months or more on 998. It had test panels on it one day, but usually it is unauthorized. I don't think it has anything to do with new HD channels.