Comcast: Our HD Looks Best
By Linda Haugsted -- Multichannel News, 5/7/2007
Comcast has launched a broadside in the high-definition superiority wars against direct-broadcast satellite.
In a new series of national print and radio ads which debuted last week, Comcast cites the results of a poll it commissioned. It indicates that Comcast delivers a better HD image than DirecTV or Dish Network.
The survey of 309 people was conducted in March by Frank N. Magid Associates and has a margin of error of between 5 and 7%, according to Comcast.
Participants in Denver were asked if they saw a difference in quality between HD pictures on unlabeled TV sets carrying images from Comcast, DirecTV and Dish Network. According to the survey, among those who expressed a preference, 65.6% picked Comcast over DirecTV and 69.92% picked Comcast over Dish Network.
The ads will also counter DirecTV’s claims it has more HD channels available. One ad states that on April 24 at 9:17 p.m., Philadelphia viewers could select from among 16 HD channels on DirecTV but had 200 choices on Comcast, including PBS stations and MyNetworkTV affiliates unavailable from the competition. The Comcast count includes 180 on-demand selections.
To help validate the findings, Accenture, the management and technology consulting company, oversaw the technical aspects of the test; and the law firm of Loeb & Loeb provided legal guidance.
DirecTV criticized the research as without much substance and questioned the methodology. Information from Comcast does not indicate what criteria testers used for selecting channels to be viewed, what questions were asked of respondents or whether they were watching “true HD,” said DirecTV public-relations manager Jade Ekstedt.
Comcast’s ad campaign is just the latest salvo by an operator against claims by DBS companies that they will offer more channels and better signal quality than cable TV.
A false-advertising suit that Time Warner Cable filed against DirecTV is pending in U.S. District Court in New York. In February, Time Warner was granted an injunction that bars DirecTV from airing a TV ad claiming its HD quality is better than cable until the false-advertising claim can be adjudicated.
