Major Comcast markets to get HDTV

By Paige Albiniak
( Broadcasting & Cable )
published

Comcast Cable Communications Inc. is launching high-definition television in
several major markets, beginning with parts of Washington, D.C., this
summer.

The cable company began offering HDTV in its hometown of Philadelphia late
last year.

Comcast will offer HDTV to its cable subscribers in northern Virginia in
mid-2002, to suburban Maryland in the second half of 2002 and to the city of
Washington, D.C., in 2003.

Systems in Detroit and Indianapolis will also offer HDTV to customers this
year.

Comcast plans to offer high-definition broadcasts from local television
stations, as well as HDTV programming from premium cable networks Home Box
Office and Showtime.

In Washington, Comcast will carry public broadcaster WETA's HDTV signal, as
well as its own Comcast SportsNet.

The MSO may have some extra motivation to roll out high-definition
programming because it is in the process of purchasing AT&T Broadband for
$72 billion -- a deal that must be approved by federal regulators in
Washington.

Paige Albiniak
Paige Albiniak

Contributing editor Paige Albiniak has been covering the business of television for more than 25 years. She is a longtime contributor to Next TV, Broadcasting + Cable and Multichannel News. She concurrently serves as editorial director for The Global Entertainment Marketing Academy of Arts & Sciences (G.E.M.A.). She has written for such publications as TVNewsCheck, The New York Post, Variety, CBS Watch and more. Albiniak was B+C’s Los Angeles bureau chief from September 2002 to 2004, and an associate editor covering Congress and lobbying for the magazine in Washington, D.C., from January 1997 - September 2002.