Comcast: We Are the HDTV Leader
The cable operator says DIRECTV is just talking more about high-def.
By Swanni
In a conference call today with financial analysts, Comcast President Steve Burke said more people get high-def service from Comcast than EchoStar and DIRECTV combined.
Burke did not offer statistics to support that claim. Comcast now has more than 24 million subscribers overall (HD and non-HD) while DIRECTV has more than 16 million customers and EchoStar has more than 13 million.
DIRECTV and EchoStar also say they now have more than 70 HD channels, compared to approximately 30 for Comcast. But Burke said that doesn't tell the whole story.
""We are clearly the high-def leader," Burke said. "If you look at our current product assortment there may be people who have more channels than we do, but no one has more high-def options."
Burke was referring to Comcast's HD On Demand lineup which offers nearly 200 hours of high-def programming.
"If you look at our high-def VOD on a given night you might have 200 movies if you are a subscriber to Comcast -- versus ten if you are a customer of a competitor. I think it is very important that we keep that high-def lead," he said.
Brian Roberts, Comcast's CEO, echoed Burke remarks, suggesting that DIRECTV is getting more attention for its high-def service because it's talking more about it.
"The fact is...it is the only thing they are talking about and they are doing it on a national basis," Roberts said. "It has gotten some more attention and we have a message ready to come back in that...I think we're going to start shouting that from the rooftops to the consumer, perhaps more strongly than we have."
Burke said Comcast is switching some channels from analog to digital to make room for more high-def channels. The cable operator is also planning to use a new technology called Switched Digital Video to expand HD capacity.
Comcast is now testing SDV in New Jersey and Denver, Burke said.
"The technology works great. It is clearly going to be a big part of eventually getting a lot more high-def bandwidth," he said.
See Comcast's latest HDTV statistics.
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