That's according to an article in Multichannel News.
Cox president Pat Esser told an industry conference today that the cable operator hopes to have capacity for 100 HDTV channels by the end of 2009.
However, he cautioned that it wasn't a guarantee that it would offer as many channels as capacity would allow -- this year or in 2009.
"I’ve asked (Cox's chief technology officer) and his team to find the capacity to offer 50 HD channels by the end of this year, going into 2008,” Esser said. “Whether we do or don’t offer that many channels, I want to have the capacity to do that.”
He said that customers are demanding more high-def offerings.
“We’re seeing an explosion in
interest and I think we have to get ready for that,” Esser said
during a panel discussion at the Society of Cable
Telecommunications Engineers conference, according to
Multichannel News.
With satcaster DIRECTV vowing to provide 100 high-def channels
by the end of this year, cable operators are under more pressure
to expand their high-def lineups.
Mutlichannel News writes that Esser said Cox recently revised
its high-def goals to keep pace. The cable operator will use a
combination of dropping analog channels and installing new technologies to
create more system capacity for high-def.
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Phillip Swann is
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