Time Warner: 3.4M HDTV Subscribers
The cable operator says the first quarter sub increase set a company record.
By Swanni
The cable operator made the disclosure today in an investors call following the release of its first quarter report.
Time Warner said HD customers increased by 418,000 in the first quarter, the highest increase ever for the company in one quarter.
Company CEO Glenn Britt also said that Time Warner Cable now offers more than 50 high-def channels in some markets and that capacity will soon no longer be an obstacle to expanding local HD lineups.
Time Warner is installing a new capacity-increasing technology called "Switched Digital Video."
"Once we have switching we can essentially add all the HD channels we can get our hands on," Britt said. "And so the gaiting factor is how many HD channels are really available as opposed to various marketing hype. Are they really available in a way that we can give them to customers? Then we have to have contracts for them and then launch them. So I think you should assume capacity is not the constraint -- it’s getting channels and signing contracts."
Britt added that some high-def channels may not be "terribly attractive" to consumers so Time Warner will not add them. He did not name specific channels.
"We are going for programming that we think consumers want," Britt said. "So since we are not trying to market by bragging about the number of channels, we’re going for quality, you may see a difference in our advertising versus some other competitors. But rest assured we are going to have everything that people really want."
Britt's comment was an apparent reference to DIRECTV's marketing campaign which says the satcaster has the most high-def channels with 95.
Time Warner COO Landel Hobbs said the company expects that 50 percent of its digital cable customers will subscribe to high-def by year's end.
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