Fox News Channel to Take HD Leap

Time Warner Cable to Begin Carrying Fox News HD in Select Markets Thursday

By Glen Dickson -- Broadcasting & Cable, 4/29/2008 3:12:00 PM

Fox News Channel will become the latest cable network to launch an HD service when it begins broadcasting in the 720-line progressive HD format Thursday.

Fox News HD, which will be a simulcast of Fox News' standard-definition service, will initially be carried by Time Warner Cable in “select regions,” Fox News vice president of affiliate sales Tim Carry said.

Fox News HD will launch on Time Warner Cable in various parts of New York including Queens, Brooklyn, Staten Island (channel 744) and Hudson Valley (channel 762). Time Warner also agreed to carry the new HD channel in San Antonio on channel 152.

Video from the Fox News studios and stand-up locations at the New York Stock Exchange and the NASDAQ Exchange will originate in true HD for the new service, with additional field footage in HD planned for later this year. Fox News HD will also provide the HD pool feed for coverage of the Democratic National Convention in Denver this summer.

The new HD service will include added content on the screen in the form of an “HD wing” graphic, which will display national and world headlines, financial-market news, weather updates and sports scores. Fox Business Channel, which launched in HD last fall on DirecTV, also uses graphics to display additional content on the HD picture screen.