Dish Network and DirecTV are battling amongst themselves to promote the most HDTV channels, as well as outflank cable competitors like Comcast and Time Warner Cable.
Dish Network is beating DirecTV and cable competitors to the punch, reports Light Reading. They have begun to roll out standard-def and high-def service in the eastern half of the United States using MPEG-4 (see table for a list of the first 21 markets). Dish is supporting the service with MPEG-4 receivers, including one with an on-board digital video recorder (DVR).
Dish is pushing its recently launched TurboHD service and some 1080p resolution content. Dish expects to offer as many as 150 national HD channels by year’s end, with hopes that it can reverse a second quarter that saw the satellite company lose subscribers for the first time.
Meanwhile, DirecTV began delivering all HD programming in MPEG-4 last month, a spokesman said. But, because it would require massive set-top switch-outs, DirecTV doesn’t have any announced plans to offer Standard Definition in MPEG-4. DirecTV says it has 130 “national” HD channels up, and will have the capacity for 200 when the DirecTV 12 satellite is available next year. DirecTV also expects to offer some movies in 1080p, later this year.
There’s an excellent chance you can get HDTV signals through your current cable provider, with more than 100 million U.S. households “passed” by a cable operator that offers HDTV, reports C/Net. All of the top 100 cable markets have been “passed” by a cable company with HDTV programming. That’s the good news. The bad news is that most providers carry only a handful of the 50-odd HDTV networks. Time Warner Cable has agreed to carry the Big Ten Network in standard-def and High-Def in all Big Ten states while Charter says a deal to carry the Big Ten Network is “imminent.”
DirecTV and Dish Network plan to broadcast the existing MPEG-2 HD lineup, but subscribers with older HD equipment will have to upgrade to newer MPEG-4 boxes to watch the new local and national HD channels.
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