Hollywoodland, which focuses on the controversial suicide of Superman TV actor George Reeves, will be available on March 8. The Return, which stars Sarah Michelle Geller, will be available on March 29.
This is NBC Universal's first high-def on demand offerings, but other studios are rushing to release new PPV films in HD due to a growing interest from cable TV operators.
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While DIRECTV is planning to offer 100 national HDTV channels by year's end, the cable operators are rapidly moving to counter by expanding their HD On Demand lineups, both movies and variety programming.
Comcast, for instance, now offers 14 On Demand new releases in high-def, including World Trade Center, Crank, Invincible and The Guardian. The films cost $3.99, the same as the non-HD version.
Cable operators at this time do not have the bandwidth to match DIRECTV's planned 100 national HD channel lineup. However, it takes less space to store a high-def movie or show than it does an entire 24-hour network.
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