Washington, D.C. (February 14, 2008) -- Comcast today said a "typical" local Comcast system will carry between 50 and 60 HDTV channels by year's end.

Comcast now offers less than 30 HD channels in most markets. But the cable operator said new technologies and analog channel reclamation projects (removing analog channels from the lineup) will free up more space for high-def.

Comcast's top executives made the HD channel disclosure today in an investors call with Wall Street analysts following the release of its fourth quarter report.
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Final 'Reader Poll' Results!

Will Comcast Offer 50-60 HD Channels By Year's End?
Yes -- 23 percent
No -- 77 percent
Total votes: 1,164

TVPredictions.com online poll of readers conducted February 14-16, 2008
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During the discussion, Comcast President Steve Burke said the cable operator is "the leading provider of high-def programming in the world."

DIRECTV has stated that it's the nation's top high-def TV service, having expanded its high-def lineup from nine to about 90 channels late last year.

But Burke said the cable op's HD On Demand lineup now more than makes up for the channel shortage.

"We have expanded our high-def offerings and we'll continue to do so in 2008," he said. "We believe that customers really care about choice; HD choices and not necessarily channels. People watch choices, not linear channels. So, we have been adding On Demand options as well as channels."

Burke, however, said a typical Comcast system will see more channels this year.

"Today, through channel reclamation and other strategies, we have been able to increase our high-def offerings to 25 to 30 channels. hat will grow to up to 50 to 60 channels in a typical system by year end," he said.

"In parallel, we have increased high-def On Demand choices from 130 to nearly 300 today, and we expect to offer over 1000 High-Def choices On Demand by the end of this year," he said.

Comcast CEO Brian Roberts added that "we are committed to delivering truly superior High-Definition television and unmatched interactive TV."

Comcast also said 42 percent of its digital cable customers subscribed to High-Definition or Digital Video Recording services at the end of 2007.

That's an increase of roughly 16 percent from the end of 2006 when 36 percent of digital cable customers took HD and/or DVR service. The 42 percent of the digital cable base represents about six million customers.

Unlike some cable and satellite providers, Comcast does not break down how many subscribers have High-Definition TV and how many have Digital Video Recorders. They include both in the same category.

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