Versus returns to DirecTV today
on March 16, 2010
After discussing it for over six months DirecTV and Comcast finally came to an agreement to get Versus back on the satellite’s lineup. DirecTV says Comcast wanted more money for the Versus feed, and Comcast argued DirecTV wanted to cut the channel’s potential audience almost in half from 14 million households. Meanwhile, hockey fans with DirecTV were unable to watch the NHL on Versus. Full Story

CNN’s new Atlanta HD broadcast facility will enable the network to go all high-definition starting in late Spring 2010, reports Multichannel. Daytime shows produced in Atlanta like CNN Newsroom will now be in hi-def. CNN also has HD equipped studios in Washington, D.C., Los Angeles and their first hi-def facility in New York. In the U.S., CNN will make use of its 20 HD production trucks and 100+ photojournalists to provide content for the network. Standard-def feeds will still come from international content providers who haven’t made the switch yet.
Although Hulu recently lost popular Viacom content from “The Daily Show with Jon Stewart” and “The Colbert Report”, they may make up for some lost viewership with the addition of content from NFL Network. The NFL channel on Hulu (
LIFE, the BBC’s follow up to the hugely popular Planet Earth series, will be broadcast over 11 episodes in HD starting Sunday, March 21, 2010. The series will break new grounds in filming, showcasing techniques such as The HD Heli-Gimbal (producing rock-steady aerial shots with 800mm lens distance capacity), Extreme High-Speed Photography (reaching speeds of up to 1,000 FPS), Underwater Time-Lapse Sequences, and new techniques in microscopy, infra-red, and ultrasonic imagery.
Even if you don’t subscribe to HBO you’ve probably seen commercials for the upcoming series The Pacific from the makers of the Band of Brothers. The Pacific, honing the tagline “Hell was an ocean away,” is a story that follows the journeys of three U.S. Marines – Robert Leckie, Eugene Sledge and John Basilone — as they engage the Japanese following the attack of Pearl Harbor in WWII. 
If you’ve ditched your cable recently amid the promise of free broadcast HD and Internet streaming, you were probably surprised yesterday if you are also a hockey fan who went looking for the much hyped USA/Canada Olympic hockey battle. NBC, in their infinite programming wisdom (cf. the recent Tonight Show fiasco), pushed out a hockey game that turned out to be a stunner and an upset victory for Team USA. However, if you went searching for it on your local NBC affiliate you got to view a series of uplifting sob-stories and then some ice dancing instead. Let me repeat: Ice Dancing. Prancing in frilly, rhinestone-studded costumes on skates. The Winter Olympics equivalent of synchronized swimming. A rather bloodless affair that carried no tension, no excitement, nothing really to cheer for unless you’re a huge Bob Fosse On Ice fan. Instead of flying hockey pucks you got frostbitten jazz hands, suckers.
Dish Network has added 9 new HD channels to its national lineup, including Fox Soccer Channel HD which launched today (Feb. 11) exclusively to Dish customers. The new channel can be found on Dish 149 if you have Dish’s America’s Top 250 package.
Dubbed “Heroes vs. Villains,” Survivor Season 20 will premiere tonight and feature 20 selected heroes and villains from the 301 contestants who have played the game. Memorable contestants such as Rupert Boneham, Jessica “Sugar” Kiper and Jerri Manthey will battle it out in the 10th year of the CBS show.
If you missed any past episodes of “24″ during the last seven seasons, Comcast has just added them all to their On Demand library. The episodes are offered in high-definition and will be available through April 7, 2010. You can find them via the On Demand menu under “TV Entertainment” > “Fox” > “24.” (Just make sure you pick the HD versions.)
For the first time Cox Communications will provide all its Winter Olympics coverage, approximately 835 hours of it, in high-definition. Cox says it is also providing the content online and On Demand, at no additional cost to subscribers. For online distribution, the Cox/NBC Universal agreement includes 1,000+ hours of digital content which will be available to customers with at least Expanded Basic service.
Endeavour’s 13-day, STS-130 mission is scheduled for liftoff at 4:39 a.m. on Sunday, Feb. 7. HDNet will start covering the lift off at 4:00 a.m., with a re-broadcast the launch on Sunday, February 7 at 11:00 a.m. ET. This is the last scheduled night time launch for the Space Shuttle Mission. (See remaining launch dates below.) 
The BBC will broadcast every match of the RBS Six Nations Championship in HD this year, a first for the rugby series. The Six Nations will start off Feb. 6, 2010 on BBC One and BBC HD with Ireland versus Italy. In the US, the game appears on the BBC America 
Cablevision subscribers in the New York Tri-State region will be happy to hear Food Network and HGTV are back online, as the cable provider and Scripps Networks Interactive came to a financial agreement today.
In case you missed the news earlier this week In Demand Networks is giving a free preview of NBA League Pass until Jan. 24. The preview is offered half way through the NBA’s regular season, promoting the service which provides up to 40 out-of-market games per week including some in HD. 
Comcast added ESPN content to their On Demand menu this week, with plans to include programming from the Winter X Games, college sports, classic boxing and the upcoming FIFA World Cup in South Africa. Also included will be ESPN’s 30 for 30 sports documentary series, which highlights sports history from 1979 to 2009.
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