Voom on Cable

[HDVoomer]

Any chance that we might see some of Voom's programming on cable? Likely candidates would be: Comcast, Cablevision, Time Warner, RCN, Charter, Cox, and Verizon's FIOS TV.

 

[jclampit]

I'd love to know the answer to this question too. Has no one heard any rumors from little birdies?

 

[rcbridge]

Voom takes a lot of room (bandwidth) for the full 21 channels, I don't know the penetration of HD customers in your area but from a business standpoint if the penetration is not that deep it would not make sense to do that.
Hopefully some of the larger Cable co's will take a chance and that may help push HDTV along.

 

[jclampit]

In a nutshell, that was the jist of the response I got from Comcast. That nobody except me wants HD, and they weren't planning on adding Voom channels, the HDnets, etc. anytime soon just to make me happy. Almost made it seem like I was crazy for wanting HD channels, even though the first line of their email said they were committed to HD (before the "however" part came up, then dominating the rest of the email).

 

[riffjim4069]

Best bet for HD right now is E* - next year D* and Verizon FiOS should offer a competitive HD package to possibly include VOOM21. I woudn't expect to see very many HD channels on cable systems this year...they just don't have the bandwidth.

 

[techweb]

Best bet for HD right now is E* - next year D* and Verizon FiOS should offer a competitive HD package to possibly include VOOM21. I woudn't expect to see very many HD channels on cable systems this year...they just don't have the bandwidth.

Bandwidth issues depend on the particular cable company. With my cable system, for example, the top analog channel is 73, and they are an 870Mhz system, which leaves them 57 RF channels for all digital channels. Assuming 2 HD or 8 SD digital channels per RF channel, they could easily carry 50 HD and 250 SD channels, and of course they need carry only one set of local channels.

 

[riffjim4069]

Bandwidth issues depend on the particular cable company. With my cable system, for example, the top analog channel is 73, and they are an 870Mhz system, which leaves them 57 RF channels for all digital channels. Assuming 2 HD or 8 SD digital channels per RF channel, they could easily carry 50 HD and 250 SD channels, and of course they need carry only one set of local channels.

I agree, my statement was general in nature. My cable co is running 750Mhz (analog tops off at ch99) and, beyond their meager 12 HD channels being offered, they have no bandwidth for additional channels without dumping some combination of services: other channels, VOD, PPV, VOIP, broadband speed increases, backup capabilities, etc. Your 870Mhz cable plant is he exception rather than the norm...most have built-out to 750Mhz. Also, it is doubtful that Adelphia will be making any further updates to their headends until they transition assets to Comcast/Time-Warner, which is still 9+ months away. As an industry, I just don't see many providers being able to add the full VOOM21 lineup in the blink of an eye; it's going to take at least a year or two. IMO, DBS and Verizon FiOS will be in a much better position to take advantage of HDTV this fall.

 

[Cyclone]

I hate to say it, but I don't think that Verizon's HDTV offering will be a good as we are all hoping it will be. Even if they aren't restricted by bandwidth capacity, its the cost of programming which will restrict the quanity of their lineup. All of the providers want $$$ for these channels. Despite their massive footprint, Verizon won't be able to deliver millions of customers to the negotions for another two or three years. So they can't leverage that for lower prices yet.

I don't think that Verizon is expecting to release a $35/mo HDTV add-on pack. They might even think along the same lines as E*, that HDNet, INHD, Voom channels are all the same no need to carry all of them.