Time Warner HD Upgrade Coming To New York City And Suburbs
'Enhanced HDTV' Will Expand Lineup, Add 'Start Over' Service, This Year
By Kent Gibbons -- Multichannel News, 4/3/2008 8:53:00 AM EDT
Time Warner Cable’s New York City area systems are getting a major upgrade in high-definition programming, starting April 30 and continuing throughout the year, adding more than 20 channels to the HD lineup it has on digital cable today in Manhattan, including versions of CNN, Food Network, Travel Channel and Weather Channel, the company said.
The top line of Time Warner Cable’s news release is that the New York and New Jersey system is tracking toward carrying 100 HD channels and 250-plus HD on-demand offerings, and that digital customers in Brooklyn, Queens and Staten Island will have 50 HD channels for no extra charge as of April 30.
Later this year (the company didn’t specify when) the 50 channels will be available to digital customers in Manhattan, New Jersey, the Hudson Valley region and Mount Vernon, N.Y.
Overall, the New York area systems have 1.4 million customers.
A quick MCN scan of the 50 channels indicates 22 HD services that aren’t currently carried in Manhattan: HD versions of A&E, ABC Family, Animal Planet, CNN, Discovery, Disney Channel, ESPN News, Food Network, Fox Business Network, Fox News Channel Hallmark Movie Channel, HGTV, History Channel, TLC, Lifetime Movie Network, MHD, New York 1, Science Channel, Toon Disney, Travel Channel, Versus/Golf Channel, and the Weather Channel.
The outer boroughs of Brooklyn, Queens and Staten Island, N.Y., have had more HD channels added than Manhattan, to date.
Major League Baseball and National Hockey League HD channels will be free with sports packages, and HD pay-per-view is being launched as well. These are in addition to existing Time Warner Cable HD offerings in the New York City area system.
The company said overall it’s launching “Enhanced HDTV” service throughout the area, which includes the Start Over service that lets customers restart a program during its allotted time slot without need of a digital video recorder.
Channel locations can be found at timewarnercable.com/nynj.
The release didn't specify what measures, if any, Time Warner Cable enacted in order to add capacity for the HD additions.
But Time Warner Cable may have freed up space for the new HD channels in part by paring down its analog tier. For example, the operator disclosed in March 2007 that it had completed an analog-reclamation project in its Staten Island system that cleared enough bandwidth for 100 high-definition channels.
Howard Szarfarc, executive vice president for the company’s New York City region, said in the release: “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. The added capacity for HD channels and content didn’t require significant upgrade expenditures or labor costs, and reflects the robust and flexible nature of our existing advanced fiber network.”
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woohoo!!! the beginnning of the end of any company that compete with timewarner in n.y.c. area.
andy - 4/4/2008 3:02:00 AM EDT
Big Apple, Big Bandwidth
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