The Day Many Have Been Waiting For... Or Not.

It was just last month (July 10) when Dish Network announced it was adding six new HD channels to its lineup, and today is the day when Dish Network made these new channels available  for its HD customers nationwide.

The new channels which have been added today are:

 
Channel 9468 - Golf/Versus HD 
Channel 9469 - MHD 
Channel 9487 - Discovery HD

Channel 9488 - TLC HD
Channel 9489 - Animal Planet HD

Channel 9490 - Science Channel HD

While many will be excited to have some new HD content, I am predicting that soon many consumers who visit the online satellite discussion forums will start complaining about the lack of true HD content on the new channels.

Only MHD will offer around the clock true HD. The rest of the channels will mainly be upconverted standard definition shows in “Stretch-o-vision” (Meaning they take the show which was shot in standard definition in 4 x 3 format and “stretch” the picture to fill a 16 x 9 format high definition screen). In addition many of these new channels are reported to leave the channels logo bug on the screen throughout each program.

The good news is that many of the prime time shows on these new channels are done in true HD and look great. (I personally can’t wait to see my two favorite shows,  Mythbusters and Dirty Jobs in full HD). We expect it will take time for all these new channels to ramp up with more around the clock true HD programming.

For those who may be upset that many of the new channels are not 24/7 HD, I say relax… Rome was not built in a day!

NFL Sunday Ticket Online

I was excited to hear that DirecTV will be making the NFL Sunday Ticket available to DirecTV subscribers via broadband.  This new service will allow DirecTV customers to watch the NFL on their TV and a different game on their computer at the same time.  

I do hope that in the future that DirecTV and the NFL can open this package up further and allow subscriptions to broadband customers who do not or can not subscribe to DirecTV service,  much like Major League Baseball did with their MLB.TV package.

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Thanks for using your Noggin!

I couldn’t tell you how excited I was when I came to MultiChannel.COM last night to read the news that MTV Networks was splitting Noggin / The N and making them two separate channels.

As a proud parent I am sure I join parents from around the country who wish to say thanks to MTV for once again making Noggin into a 24/7 channel again.

I can’t tell you the sadness around my house when 6 p.m. rolls around and Moose A. Moose sings his goodbye song to sign off Noggin for the night. I would rather have my son watch quality / educational shows that Noggin offers then have him watching The Power Rangers on the Disney Channel.

So thanks MTV for using your Noggin!

Happy Birthday XMFAN.COM!

If you read here at Multichannel.com and Multichannel News you no doubt follow the industry closely. There are many great places online where consumers hang out and discuss the industry. Many from inside the industry watch these forums closely to gauge what consumers are thinking about their products,  and they can also keep an eye out for what their competition is doing.

Today I wanted to take a moment to salute one of these great online forums XMFAN.COM, which is one of the oldest XM Satellite Radio discussion forum on the Internet. 

XMFAN.COM was founded 5 years ago today by Ryan Morris and quickly grew into one of the largest and most respected sites on the topic of XM Satellite Radio!

Congrats and Happy Birthday to XMFAN from your friends here at Multichannel.COM!