Travel Channel, WWE Go HD
by R. Thomas Umstead -- Multichannel News, 1/21/2008
New York The Travel Channel and content distributor World Wrestling Entertainment last week announced new high-definition initiatives.
The Cox Communications-owned Travel Channel last week launched a new high-definition channel, which will feature the standard-definition channel’s series and personalities such as Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations, Bizarre Foods With Andrew Zimmern, Best Places to Find Cash and Treasures and Samantha Brown’s Passport.
In the Travel Channel HD Landscape Study, conducted by Frank N. Magid Associates last fall, Travel Channel was ranked the most anticipated new HDTV network among current HD subscribers.
The WWE will finally showcase all of its elbow smashes, body slams and pins in HD beginning with Monday’s (Jan. 21) episode of USA Network’s Monday Night Raw.
Along with its original cable and broadcast series — USA’s Monday Night Raw and A.M. Raw; Sci Fi Channel’s ECW: Extreme Championship Wrestling and The CW’s Friday Night SmackDown — the WWE will also deliver all of its pay-per-view shows in HD, beginning with the Jan. 27 “Royal Rumble” event.
The company recently completed a $20 million renovation of its Stamford, Conn., television studios, allowing the WWE to broadcast in HD.
