Providers compete to offer biggest lineup.

By BRAD HEM

With high-definition televisions at the top of many wish lists this year, shoppers are wading through the lingo of 1080p, LCD and DLP to buy a set.

And after they learn the HD language — 1080p is the top resolution quality, LCD and DLP are types of sets — they may want to go home and rethink how they actually receive their programming.

If you want to get more than the free broadcast signals from local stations, the major area cable provider (Comcast), the traditional phone company that now offers TV (AT&T) and the satellite services (Dish Network and DirecTV) have varying HD offerings. They all promise to add more soon and and they all say their content beats the competition. "All of us are racing to get there," said Ed Cholerton, AT&T vice president and general manager for the Houston market. "It's interesting for us to watch everybody's claims. Everybody says they have the most. There's competitive desire to have more than the other guys."

AT&T plans to announce this week the addition of nine new HD channels, bringing its total to 40, spokesman Dan Feldstein said. The satellite companies offer the most — Dish has more than 80 and DirecTV has 87, both counting regional sports and pay-per-view channels. Comcast has 30 HD channels and about 150 hours of on-demand HD content.

Extra costs for HD programming and equipment, if any, vary by provider.

"You're going to see (content) more than double next year," Comcast spokesman Ray Purser said, speaking of overall HD programming, including on-demand offerings.

"We plan to add as many HD channels as they become available," said Dish Network's Parker McConachie.

"We're going to keep pushing," DirecTV spokeswoman Jade Ekstedt said.

In the meantime, they're all waiting to pounce on new HDTV owners who won't see the full benefits without upgrading to sometimes more expensive HD service. In addition to trying to lure new TV owners from the competition, content providers are hoping to sell upgraded service to existing customers.

"Anytime somebody's in a changing mood, that's good for us," Cholerton said. As the latest of the group to start offering video, AT&T is playing catch-up, and — like satellite — the company has been advertising itself as a better alternative to cable.

Cody Stoots already has thought it through. Despite his youth, the Texas Tech freshman has had experience with both cable and satellite at the family home in Houston and at school in Lubbock.

He said AT&T's U-verse had the major HD channels important to him and his family such as HBO and ESPN just like the other services, but he prefers their customer service.

"I talked to (AT&T) on a Friday and they showed up on Saturday," said Stoots, who said he's been assigned to handle his family's telecommunications issues and spent time last week shopping for a new HD set at the Circuit City in Meyerland Plaza.

The most-wanted high-tech gift this Christmas is the HDTV, according to a survey of 1,012 people by the Illinois-based Computing Technology Industry Association. More than 15 percent of those surveyed asked for HDTVs, which beat out the Sony PlayStation 3, Nintendo Wii and Sony Xbox, the next three finishers.

The Consumer Electronics Association says 40 percent of U.S. homes will have HDTVs by the end of this year, up from 26 percent in 2006 and 16 percent in 2005.

While the Feb. 17, 2009, conversion from analog to digital broadcasting may be confusing some consumers and prompting them to buy HDTVs, that switch will not require people to buy HD. Consumers only need to have a TV with a built-in digital converter or a set-top box with a digital converter.

But HDTV's sharper picture and sound are expected to keep penetration increasing, even though there's some feeling that available content already has hit a plateau, said Alfred Poor, an expert on video display screens who follows the industry at HDTVProfessor.com.

"There's going to come a time when people question whether they really need five soccer channels in HD," Poor said.

Comcast's Purser said the industry has wrestled with a chicken-and-egg issue regarding equipment and programming for years. Do people buy HDTV sets because the content they want is in high definition, or do programmers provide HD content because more people are buying the sets?

"It's going hand-in-hand," said Megan Pollock, spokeswoman for the Consumer Electronics Association. "Consumers are buying them and then demanding the content."

Content is such a driver that viewers are watching shows in HD they wouldn't have bothered to watch in standard definition, said AT&T's Cholerton, using the Discovery Channel's vibrant Planet Earth documentary series as an example.

It's also clear there's no going back. Once viewers see HD, whether it's a Texans game or the nightly news, Pollock said they're not interested in standard definition anymore.

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Modificado el ( Tuesday, 18 de December de 2007 )

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