Bresnan, a cable firm serving more than 300,000 subscribers in Montana, Utah, Wyoming and Colorado, this week launched nine new HD offerings.
The company said its customers’ highest priority is for more HD channels. The new channels include USA Network HD, Movie Channel HD, Food HD, HGTV HD, TBS HD, History Channel HD, SciFi Channel HD, Lifetime Movie Network HD and HD-PPV (which includes GameHD and TeamHD). Along with carriage of the local broadcast HD outlets in its markets, Bresnan said its current target is to offer more than two dozen HD channels by the end of 2008.
Meanwhile in Northern Virginia, Cox Cable said it’s now offering more than 30 HD channels. It has just ramped up 11 additional outlets for subscribers in Fairfax County, which is adjacent to Washington, D.C. Cox said it has now nearly doubled its HD menu in the past year.
Cable firms, in general, are getting pressured into rolling out extended HD services as quickly as possible—thanks to some stiff competition from satellite companies which are promising their subscribers scores of HD outlets in the near future.
