In the latest skirmish between cable and satellite over high-def, Comcast officials are telling industry groups that it will have 400 HDTV channel choices by year's end.
And it will have more than 800 by the end of 2008.
Before you call Comcast to sign up, the exact number of channels depends upon your definition of what a channel actually is.
The cable operator is saying that it will have 400 high-def choices this year, which will include everything from local stations to high-def networks such as Discovery HD Theater to HD Video on Demand services such as new video releases.
In other words, if the movie Casino Royale is available in high-def on Comcast On Demand, that would be a channel choice. If Discovery HD Theater offers a handful of Planet Earth documentaries in high-def on demand, that, too, would be a channel choice.
With Comcast now providing more than 100 hours of HD VOD -- and expected to reach 200 hours by year's end -- you could see how it could suddenly get to "400 channels."
While the number may seen shaky, Media Daily News reports that Comcast is boasting that it will have more HD "choices" than any other TV provider.
"We're winning on choice, we're winning on quality, and we're winning on value," Comcast CFO John Alchin recently told a group of investors in London.
Wall Street analyst Craig Moffett recently issued a report mocking Comcast for its 800 channel claim.
"Comcast recently announced a target of 800 HD ‘choices,’ clearly and meticulously counting every lame HD stream that a consumer could conceivably order up,” Moffett said, according to Multichannel News.
Moffett, however, also took DIRECTV to task for reportedly planning to include high-def regional sports channels and NFL Sunday Ticket games in its upcoming 100 channel lineup. The regional sports channels are not available nationally while the NFL games are only available on Sundays.
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