Will Cable Offer 100 HD Channels In 2007?
Cable operators have boasted of higher capacity.
By Swanni
So, will your cable TV provider be able to match it?
Short answer: No.
Cable operators now offer anywhere from 15 to 40 HD channels and it's highly unlikely that most of them will even reach the 50 mark by year's end. (Cablevision is now the cable industry leader with 40 HD channels, which includes the 15-channel Voom lineup.)
That might be a surprise to cable viewers who heard cable executives earlier this year boast that they would have as much high-def capacity as DIRECTV. And some went as far to say that their HD lineups would be "as compelling" as DIRECTV.
"I'm 100 percent confident that we will have as compelling a HDTV lineup as DIRECTV," Melinda Witmer, Time Warner's chief programming officer, told TVPredictions.com last March.
Witmer added that Time Warner would have the capacity for 100 high-def channels by year's end. And Time Warner Cable CFO Landel Hobbs told an investors conference in June that the cable operator would have "virtually unlimited" capacity for high-def by year's end.
But Time Warner, which now has around 30 HD channels in some markets, was not the only cable operator talking a good game earlier in the year.
Cox President Pat Esser said in June that he hoped the cable operator would have the capacity for 50 channels by year's end. (Cox now offers around 20-25 HD channels in some markets.)
And Comcast President Steve Burke said last year that his company would offer 32-35 HD channels by the end of the third quarter of 2007 (end of September). Comcast came up short with about 25 HD channels.
So what's holding the cable operators up?
Two things:
1. Capacity
Cable operators have spoken loud and often about new technologies such as Switched Digital Video that will enable them to expand their high-def capacity. And while the cable ops have experimented with SDV in a few markets, most local systems are still bandwidth-starved, barely able to add a handful of new HD channels to their lineups, much less dozens.
DIRECTV has been able to expand its HD capacity with the launch of a single satellite (albeit an expensive satellite). However, cable must reconfigure every local system before it can compete with DIRECTV in each market.
2. Programming Deals
Even if a cable service has the capacity for more HD channels, it must negotiate the rights to carry them with the individual networks. That takes time -- and money.
DIRECTV last year made a (time and financial) commitment to get those programming deals, which is why it will be able to add so many basic cable HD networks later this year. The cable operators are now playing catch up.
Although it's unlikely that most cable operators will add more than 10-15 HD channels by year's end, you will see them add some of the more popular new HD networks.
For instance, there was a rush over the last week to add TBS HD in time for the baseball playoffs. And Comcast confirmed last week that it will add CNN HD.
The cable operators will try to stay competitive with DIRECTV this year by adding the best of the new HD -- and bolster that with an expanded HD On Demand lineup.
But just don't expect 100 HD channels anytime soon.
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Swanni (Phillip Swann) is
president and publisher of TVPredictions.com. He has been quoted in
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News, Inside Edition, The New York Times, The Washington Post, The
Chicago Tribune, The Financial Times, The Associated Press and The
Hollywood Reporter. He can be reached at
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