Tech
100 linear HD channels on cable in New York
Published Friday, Apr 4 2008, 14:22 BST | By James Welsh
Time Warner Cable is to carry 100 linear HD channels in New York, it was confirmed today.
The cable operator, which has positioned itself as "the home of free HD", will carry 50 HD channels starting on April 30, and plans to reach its target of 100 linear services by the end of the year.
Among the HD channels to be made available to all digital cable customers at the end of this month are Animal Planet, CNN, Hallmark Movie Channel, and ESPN. Additional sports and movie services in HD will be made available at no extra cost to subscribers taking the relevant package.
Time Warner has also announced plans to roll-out "enhanced HD" services such as "Start Over", a feature already available on some standard definition channels that allows viewers to start watching a programme already in progress from the beginning.
"By delivering the most HD choices and Enhanced HD for free to its Digital Cable customers, Time Warner Cable reaffirms our position as the preeminent multimedia provider in New York City," said Howard Szarfarc, executive vice president of the cable operator's New York City operations. "Our customers can watch what they want, when they want, in HD... for free."
Other US cable operators are adopting new technologies such as switched video, which allocates bandwidth on demand to resolve capacity issues, and the more efficient MPEG-4 compression codec, to accelerate rollout of high definition services.
Such technologies have yet to be deployed by a UK cable operator for the carriage of linear HD services.
The cable operator, which has positioned itself as "the home of free HD", will carry 50 HD channels starting on April 30, and plans to reach its target of 100 linear services by the end of the year.
Among the HD channels to be made available to all digital cable customers at the end of this month are Animal Planet, CNN, Hallmark Movie Channel, and ESPN. Additional sports and movie services in HD will be made available at no extra cost to subscribers taking the relevant package.
Time Warner has also announced plans to roll-out "enhanced HD" services such as "Start Over", a feature already available on some standard definition channels that allows viewers to start watching a programme already in progress from the beginning.
"By delivering the most HD choices and Enhanced HD for free to its Digital Cable customers, Time Warner Cable reaffirms our position as the preeminent multimedia provider in New York City," said Howard Szarfarc, executive vice president of the cable operator's New York City operations. "Our customers can watch what they want, when they want, in HD... for free."
Other US cable operators are adopting new technologies such as switched video, which allocates bandwidth on demand to resolve capacity issues, and the more efficient MPEG-4 compression codec, to accelerate rollout of high definition services.
Such technologies have yet to be deployed by a UK cable operator for the carriage of linear HD services.
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