Cablevision Systems Corp. today said it will begin adding 15 new high-definition channels to its digital-cable lineup.
With the move, the New York metro area operator will offer 60 HD services, free to its customer base. The new additions are launching across Cablevision’s service area over a five-day period, beginning today and ending Aug. 1.
Earlier this month, Cablevision disclosed that it would be buttress its HD lineup during the last week of July, but didn't disclose all of the networks coming on board.
The operator's HD announcement comes the same day, Verizon’s FiOS TV said it will begin its launch into New York City with a video package that includes 100 HD channels.
Cablevision officials said more than 1.1 million iO TV customers today have at least one HD TV set and HD-enabled set-top box. At that level, Cablevision said its HD customer base that has grown by more than 50% over the last year, as the operator has more than doubled its HD channel base from 23.
Cutting across programmer owners and genres, the new channels being added this week: AMC HD, Animal Planet HD, Discovery Channel HD, Fox News HD, FX HD, Hallmark Movie Channel HD, IFC HD, Nickelodeon HD, Science Channel HD, Speed Channel HD, Spike HD, The Weather Channel HD, TLC HD, Travel Channel HD and WE HD.
“We have continued to build additional value into our Emmy Award-winning iO TV digital-cable service, through the addition of more free on demand programming, unique and valuable interactive services like News 12 Interactive, and more free HD,” Cablevision senior vice president of product management Josh Trierweiler in a statement. “The ongoing expansion of the HD programming available to our iO TV customers represents our commitment to ensuring that Optimum offers the very best cable television, high-speed Internet and voice products in our market, and consumers have recognized this superiority by continuing to choose our services over those of our competitors.”
