Putting HDTV on the map in Oklahoma

12 Responses to “Cox Adding New HD Channels Nov 20th”

1. soonertoad responds: October 31st, 2007 at 8:25 am

   I am glad Cox has finally gotten competition. I am reaping the benefits. Hopefully USA and the Sci Fi Channel are next in line.

2. yosemitesam responds: November 1st, 2007 at 1:01 pm

   In addition, I see 720 ‘HD On Demand’ will be added. I look forward to this because the ‘On Demand’ feature is great! I use it all the time. I have a HDDVR, but the ‘On Demand’ feature lets me surf for movies & specials anytime I want and watch things I didn’t capture with my DVR. If you haven’t used it, you should check it out.

3. Sooner Al responds: November 1st, 2007 at 1:54 pm

   Cox Channel 700 is HD OnDemand (OD). We have had that here in the OKC market for awhile now, although the last time I looked there was very little content.

   Personally my wife and I don’t use OD at all so I wish they, ie. Cox, would not even offer it and give me more HD channels that I would watch instead.

   At least they are getting rid of HD PPV…

4. yosemitesam responds: November 1st, 2007 at 2:26 pm

   To each their own. I have HBO & beside the free stuff, I find there is a lot of content to surf, so I use it a lot. By the way, just curious, how much more HD content is out there for any service to offer? It seems to me that most meaningfull content is now offered in HD.

5. doublej responds: November 1st, 2007 at 6:16 pm

   How about SCIFI, USA, FX and MGM HD. If I didn’t prefer my Dish 722 I would consider upgrading my old directv account for those HD channels, but I don’t care for the HR20 and definately not the HR21. Until COX gets a better DVR and DVR software they will never be a consideration for me. Directv’s on demand is pretty good, but I also have no use for on demand from any of the broadcast providers either.

6. yosemitesam responds: November 1st, 2007 at 6:58 pm

   Good point on the four channels you mention. It seems to me that HD content availability is so dynamic (everybody claims to have the most) and most providers are adding channels at a pretty good rate, I’m not going to consider changing providers again just to pick up a few more. I switched to Cox from directv a couple of years ago because they didn’t offer local network’s in HD and OTA was not an option for me. So far I’m really happy with my service and I really like the Magnavox DVR (DCT 6416).

7. ggore responds: November 2nd, 2007 at 5:39 am

   NBC-Universal is requiring cable operators to add Sci-Fi HD, Bravo-HD, USA-HD, and MSNBC-HD all at once, not allowing any of them to be added individually. It’s the egregious practice of the programmers called “bundling”, which makes cable add channels they might otherwise not feel their community or customers have any interest in.

   Turner does this with TBS-HD, requiring that you already carry TBS, CNN, TNT, Headline News, and Boomerang on analog before you can carry TBS-HD, or instead of being free, TBS-HD will cost an exorbitant amount of money. Same policy if you want to add CNN-HD. Ridiculous in my opinion, considering most of the TBS programming wasn’t produced in HD in the first place.

   MTV requires that you carry MTV, VH1, Nickelodeon, Spike, and CMT, ALL on analog before you can add ANY of their digital or HD services.

   Also, the NBCU networks are using a totally differnent brand of satellite transmission from Tandberg instead of the usual Motorola or Scientific-Atlanta, and there aren’t enough receivers available.

8. trueview responds: November 3rd, 2007 at 8:13 am

   ggore comments are interesting and may explain Dish not yet adding them. Do you really mean “analog” or do you mean “SD”?

9. ggore responds: November 4th, 2007 at 6:30 am

   Yes, the analog or SD versions of those channels must be carried on Basic Cable and within a certain range of channel numbers, i.e. 2-13, 2-25, etc. before you are allowed to carry the HD versions.

   Hearst-Argyle does this as well, requiring the carriage of Lifetime, Lifetime Movie Network, and Lifetime Real Women on the Analog Basic Cable tier as a condition to carry KOCO-HD at a cheaper or free rate.

   ABC/ESPN does it, requires that ESPN, ESPN2, ESPN Classic, and ESPNU be carried adjacent to each other somewhere in the 2-13 range before you can carry ESPN-HD or ESPN2-HD.

   These requirements are for cable, I don’t know what the adjacency and numbering requiremens are for Dish or Direct.

10. trueview responds: November 5th, 2007 at 10:24 am

    They are grouped together, mostly now that you mention it. DISH leaves gaps in its “channel” numbers sometimes so maybe this is to allow for this. On occasion they will move a channel to a new one; a requirement maybe? I see no reason to move one when its viewership learned to find it as it is.

11. ggore responds: November 6th, 2007 at 7:01 am

    Channel position is a big deal to programmers. Everyone wants to be in the 2-13 range, and some will give big price breaks for being there as well as having their networks positioned next to each other, some as much as 50%.

    Price is another consideration. For example, most cable networks cost $.25-.40/month/subscriber. But if you don’t carry all the networks a company offers, that cost can balloon to ridiculous levels. We don’t carry all the MTV networks, so Spike costs $3.15/month/subscriber, which is higher than ESPN, the most expensive network on cable.

12. ralfthedog responds: November 20th, 2007 at 10:49 am

    It would be nice if CNNHD had any HD content. From what I can tell, the only difference is the crawler on the bottom of the screen.

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