Sportsman Channel, an outlet featuring primarily hunting, fishing, marksmanship and related outdoor activities, plans to begin offering its content on a new HD channel starting next week (Jan. 25).
Sportsman HD will simulcast its SD content, which the channel said passes more than 80 million households in the United States. The HD programming will be rolled out incrementally over the next several months-- with an initial offering of about 33 percent of primetime programming airing in HD.
Sportsman HD is targeting a full HD schedule for next fall. (The HD feed will be co-located on the same satellite as its SD service, deploying content in MPEG-4.)
Sportsman HD executives said they believe HD's enhanced video/audio qualities, as compared to over SD (and analog), are especially apt for their type of content, saying that "viewers will be able to fully immerse themselves in the shows to feel like they are out in the tree stand or on the water with our hosts. High-definition, especially for nature scenes, takes the viewer experience to an entirely new level both audibly and visually."
