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 (http://www.hulu.com/nfl) is featuring nine football categories including 149 “Game of the Week” episodes, 18 “Greatest Games” episodes, and 43 “Super Bowl Highlights.” Each team also has its own sub-channel (For example http://www.hulu.com/nfl/carolina-panthers) which makes its easier to find content for a certain team rather than browsing through categories. Full Story
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. Full Story
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. Full Story
Showtime will launch a new stylish interactive widget for FiOS HD subscribers watching the Strikeforce Challengers sporting event on Friday, Feb. 26. The mixed martial arts broadcast will premiere SHOWTIME Sports Interactive, an EBIF interactive TV app enabling you to vote, view fighter stats and bios, and access a fight calendar. The widget is designed to look like an old baseball card, with retro looking illustrations and all the imperfections of an age (no, your TV isn’t getting old). Showtime says its the first programmer to rollout an EBIF iTV app in high-def, and will include the feature in select HD MPEG-4 broadcasts.
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. Full Story
Below is the Winter Olympics 2010 schedule for Friday, Feb. 19, 2010. Times may vary according to where you live. To view a schedule for your time zone go to the Olympics 2010 website and enter your zip code. For a count of earned medals by Country visit this page. Full Story
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. Full Story
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. Full Story
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.) Full Story
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. Full Story
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.) Full Story
This Tuesday, Feb. 2, the first two episodes of the final season of Lost will premiere. The ABC show, which started in 2004, will continue the story of the fictional crash of Flight 815 and promises a shocking finale this year. “We felt that this was the only way to give Lost a proper creative conclusion,” said ABC Entertainment President Stephen McPherson. Full Story
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 schedule, although it is not clear whether it will be in HD or not. Full Story
Starz’s original TV series Spartacus: Blood and Sand will premiere tonight in HD (1080i) at 10pm ET/PT. The season will run 13 episodes and according to sources has already renewed for a second season, even before broadcasting its premiere episode. Full Story
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. Full Story
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. Full Story
A new Syfy series “Caprica” will debut Friday, Jan. 22 in high-definition at 9pm ET/8pm. However, the premiere pilot (to be presented with limited commercials) won’t exactly be debuting unseen, as it has already been available on Hulu, Syfy.com, and other on-demand outlets. Full Story
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. Full Story
Recent Comments