Discovery Communications Inc. said Monday that it would launch a 24-hour
high-definition-television network, Discovery HD Theater, June 17.
The programmer said the channel's launch supports the Federal Communications
Commission's goal of spurring the growth of the HDTV market.
The channel will be advertising-supported and offer clients the chance to run
ads in HDTV.
'Advertisers who are vested with us in accelerating the high-definition trend
are interested in partnering with us,' vice president of new media Clint
Stinchcomb said.
The company has an HDTV library of 115 titles.
Discovery also said Monday that it is launching a
subscription-video-on-demand service, called Discovery on Demand, offering up to
500 titles from its 70,000-hour library at any given time.
The company will also offer an advertising-based free
VOD service called Choice 10 Discovery, which will provide a more limited number
of titles.
'Cox Communications [Inc.] congratulates Discovery on today's announcement of
high-value digital-content services that should further the national goal of
establishing digital television as the transmission medium of the future,' Cox
president and CEO Jim Robbins said in a prepared statement.
'Discovery has always produced content of enormous value that drives each
phase of our digital rollout,' he added. 'We are pleased to be affiliated with
Discovery as a major distributor and as a supportive
shareholder.'
