Comcast Touts Reaching 1,000 HD 'Choices' Mark

But Count Comprises Mostly VOD, Including 200 High-Def Movies and 300 TV Shows

By Todd Spangler -- Multichannel News, 10/15/2008 12:01:00 PM

Comcast, attempting to counteract the 100-plus high-definition linear lineups being flogged by satellite and telco operators, announced it now offers more than 1,000 HD "viewing choices" that comprise mainly on-demand programming.

The cable operator, which set the 1,000-mark HD target in January at the Consumer Electronics Show, claimed the expanded HD content is more than five times its total offerings a year ago. Comcast in May announced reaching the 500 HD choices threshold.

Comcast's count includes linear HDTV channels, more than 200 HD movies, 300 television shows and "hundreds" of music videos. The company said it serves more than 300 million VOD views per month.

Analysts have criticized the HD claims by Comcast and satellite operators DirecTV and Dish Network alike as hyperbolic.

In a research note last year, Sanford Bernstein analyst Craig Moffett said Comcast's "HD choices" campaign was "clearly and meticulously counting every lame HD stream that a consumer could conceivably order up." 

But the main object of Moffett's ridicule was DirecTV, which includes regional sports networks not available in all markets and redundant East and West coast feeds of premium channels in its HD tally.