Comcast: No HD For Virginia Town
Colonial Heights cable viewers have to install off-air antennas for high-def channels.
By Swanni
However, in the town of Colonial Heights, Virginia, population 16,897, the battle is already over without a shot being fired.
Why?
Comcast does not offer one high-def channel in its programming lineup in Colonial Heights, which is located about 25 miles south of Richmond. Not a local network. Not HBO. Not ESPN. Not a single one.
Consequently, Comcast subscribers in Colonial Heights must install antennas to at least get their local channels in HD.
Comcast does provide HD programming in Chesterfield County, which is just north of the small southeastern Virginia town. But nothing in Colonial Heights.
On Comcast's web site for Colonial Heights, the cable operator lists a variety of SD premium movie channels in the channel 200s where the high-def channels are usually positioned.
TVPredictions.com was alerted to the Comcast HD shutout in Colonial Heights by an area reader. He had read our article earlier this week on Comcast's efforts to expand its high-def lineup in Northern Colorado from 14 channels to 29.
"I read your article about N. Colorado adding HD channels to their line-up. Well I live in (Colonial Heights) VA, and Comcast in my area offers 0 HD channels, no VOD, nor digital voice," he wrote. "Upon numerous calls to Comcast, no one knows if/when we'll ever get them. Stop feeling sorry for small towns who only have 14 channels.. give me a break."
TVPredictions.com confirmed his account by calling Comcast's office in the Colonial Heights area. A woman who answered the telephone said she didn't know why the cable operator did not offer high-def channels to its Colonial Heights subscribers. Or, when or if that would change.
Contacted yesterday by TVPredictions.com, Comcast national spokeswoman Jenni Moyer said in an e-mail that she would have to look into it. She has not responded back since that message.
The reader who contacted us said: "Phone operators just say not available, technicians I've seen on the street say something about a 'plant re-build', for at least a year and a half now."
The lack of HD channels in Colonial Heights is more evidence that high-def is still in its infancy in many parts of the U.S. Some cable operators, particularly small ones, have yet to invest in serious upgrades to expand capacity for HD programming or, in the case of Colonial Heights, even offer HD programming.
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Swanni (Phillip Swann) is president and publisher of
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