DIRECTV Adds 24 More HD Channels

[dkennedy]

DIRECTV Adds 24 More HD Channels

The new list includes six new basic cable networks.

November 14, 2007

By Phillip Swann, tvpredictions.com

DIRECTV today added 24 new High-Definition channels, including six more basic cable networks in high-def.

By DIRECTV's count, today's additions gives the satcaster approximately 100 HD channels, its long-stated goal for the year.

The new HD channels added today include:

Biography HD (channel 266)
Spike HD (channel 325)
Country Music Television HD (channel 327)
MTV HD (channel 331)
VH1 HD (channel 335)
Nickelodeon HD (channel 299)

Those six channels are simulcasts of their standard-def lineups. As of 6 a.m. this morning, Biography HD had not been added to the lineup, but it's now included in DIRECTV's new HD channel lineup at its web site.

In addition, DIRECTV added five new high-def PPV channels (in the channel 170s) and 13 new regional sports channels in HD.

The regional sports additions are:

Comcast Sports HD Net New England (ch. 620-1)
FSN South HD (ch. 630-1)
SportsSouth HD (ch. 631-1)
FSN Florida HD (ch. 634-1)
FSN Ohio HD (ch. 637-1)
FSN Cincinnati HD (ch. 638-1)
FSN North HD (ch. 641-1)
Altitude HD (ch. 644-1)
FSN Rocky Mountain HD (ch. 645-1)
FSN Arizona HD (ch. 649-1)
FSN Northwest HD (ch. 651-1)
FSN Bay Area HD (ch. 654-1)

[adam]

So that means DirecTV now has 5 times as many HD channels as Time Warner Albany. How did Time Warner ONLY lose 83,000 subscribers last quarter?

[hurnik]

Probably because every time it rains you lose signal? And around here, that's quite often?

[adam]

Have you ever had DirecTV, burnik? I had it for a year or so about 8 years ago and the only time the dish ever lost signal was when there were severe thunderstorms. My uncle has had DirecTV since 1995 and I have never seen him lose signal when it rained unless it was a severe storm, as well as my father. Honestly I think cable goes out or gets fuzzy more often, when the weather is bad, than the dish does.

[bruces]

I agree with you about rain fade on the single or triple LNB dishes. The only time I lost a signal with one of them was during a very heavy thunderstorm.

However, the oval shaped 5 LNB dishes, that are necessary to receive the new HD stations, have many more problems with rain fade.

[Skaggs]

I just saw a DirecTV commercial on ESPN that featured a woman speaking and had a clock counting down the time of the commercial in the lower right corner.

The woman claimed DirecTV will soon have 150 HD channels!

Wouldn't you think Time Warner would attempt to catch up with the number of DirecTV HD channels? If TWC doesn't add double digit HD channels in December, I predict you will see a huge exodus to DirecTV.

[hurnik]

adam said:

Have you ever had DirecTV, burnik? I had it for a year or so about 8 years ago and the only time the dish ever lost signal was when there were severe thunderstorms. My uncle has had DirecTV since 1995 and I have never seen him lose signal when it rained unless it was a severe storm, as well as my father. Honestly I think cable goes out or gets fuzzy more often, when the weather is bad, than the dish does.

Yes I have. I had it for 3 years. I had 98% signal strength, but just about every time it would rain, I'd lose signal. Same thing on cloudy days in the winter.

I finally ended up having to get TW Basic cable because of the outages (Albany gets about 3.25" of rain for May, June, July, and August, so that's pretty frequently).

[macUser]

admin said:

Wouldn't you think Time Warner would attempt to catch up with the number of DirecTV HD channels? If TWC doesn't add double digit HD channels in December, I predict you will see a huge exodus to DirecTV.

Does TW even have pipes large enough to get much more through?

[Skaggs]

macuser said:

admin said:

Wouldn't you think Time Warner would attempt to catch up with the number of DirecTV HD channels? If TWC doesn't add double digit HD channels in December, I predict you will see a huge exodus to DirecTV.

Does TW even have pipes large enough to get much more through?

They do if they use Switched Digital Video (SDV).