Bright House to add 50 Hd channels in 18months

[JamesJ]

Bright House adds high-def channels in area | floridatoday.com | Serving Brevard County and Florida’s Space Coast

Bright House adds high-def channels in area

BY WAYNE T. PRICE
FLORIDA TODAY ADVERTISEMENT




Bright House Networks, the top cable provider for Central Florida, announced plans Monday to boost its high-definition television programming by 50 channels over the next 18 months.

That's triple what Bright House, based in Maitland, now offers. Customers will see the first high-definition changes on Feb. 1. That's when up to six new high-definition channels will be added.

"We will continue our leadership role as the first and best HDTV provider in Central Florida as we expand our HD programming offerings," said Christian Fenger, president of Bright House Networks Central Florida division.

"Over the next 18 months, we will triple our HDTV programming by adding content that is compelling, entertaining and of interest to our customers," Fenger said.

The company said the expanded high-definition offerings are made possible because of its "hybrid fiber-coaxil network architecture" and "its long-standing relationships with the programmers.

Contact Price at 242-3658 or wprice@floridatoday.com

[Saxamoophone]

awesome news.

now what does the "hybrid fiber-coaxil network architecture" really mean? Isn't that pretty much the same as we've had for years?

And with that being said, how exactly are they making space for these 50+ channels? Will it be done with a IPTV-like streaming way?

[iceturkee]

wow and directv will have over 150 by the time, bhn adds their meager 50. gotta do better than that, folks!

[stevenl]

I dont think there are even 50 HD channels with HD programming!!

[LonghornXP]

Okay I'm going to spill some of the beans with regard to some of the new programming. First this information applies for now only for Bright House Networks Tampa Bay and Central Florida markets. I don't have any contacts beyond these two regions but that isn't to say other BHN regions won't also see these changes.

First BHN right now as we type is upgrading all of Tampa Bay and Central Florida regions to a better 1Ghz network. I just happened to talk with one of the contractors "while" he was replacing each and every one of the boxes with new 1Ghz gear for my entire complex. I watched him moving from building to building over the course of the entire day. I also saw the hardware that was being installed as well and it was indeed 1Ghz gear.

Right now before this upgrade nearly all BHN customers are connected to either a 750Mhz or 860Mhz network. My contacts have also said many of the things Stevenl has been saying. I've been told that part of this 1Ghz upgrade will also included the transition from 256QAM to 1024QAM which will create even more bandwidth. Also DOCSIS 3.0 will soon be deployed along with the change from 16QAM to 256QAM for the internet. This alone once upgraded will allow BHN to upgrade their base internet package to 20Mbps down and 3Mbps Up at no extra charge. These are the speeds I'm hearing but this could change though.

I've also been told that around another 5-10 analog channels will be converted to digital only as well. I've been told that Central Florida is quite a bit further behind on these upgrades compared to the Tampa Bay market but not that far behind. My contacts are saying that the Tampa Bay area will see the new HD channels etc within the first half of 2008 while most of the Central Florida market will most likely be within the second half of 2008.

I will create a second post to go over the new programming we will see along with "why" BHN is able to add these new channels.

[LonghornXP]

First I'm hearing that all HBO and Cinemax channels will be offered in HDTV. Also they will add the Showtime HD feeds, TMC HD East and the four of the five Starz HD channels. They won't carry Starz HD West. I'm also hearing that Starz On Demand, Starz HD On Demand, Encore On Demand and Encore HD On Demand will be coming as well.

Beyond the above most of the new DirecTV HD channels will be offered such as ABC Family HD, ESPN News HD, ESPNU HD etc. Also SciFI and USA Network HD are two I'm sure will be coming even in markets that haven't been upgraded yet. The only issue is that this will take several months at the least and customers can very well be lost by that time though.

Also today a cable network for the most part is split up into 6Mhz segments with a total amount of bandwidth which in most cases is 750Mhz. So a 750Mhz system has 125 6Mhz segments. All services and I mean all of them use this space including VOD, internet, phone, and all TV channels. As a general rule of thumb this is what types of channels can be carried in each 6Mhz segment using QAM256 today while still keeping good picture quality.

One analog channel uses all 6Mhz. So 60 analog channels will use 360Mhz of bandwidth out of a total of 750Mhz so as we can see analog is a bandwidth hog to say the least.

8-12 digital channels can be added using a single 6Mhz segment.

2 HD channels can be added using a single 6Mhz segment.

Switching to QAM1024 will provide these benefits.

No benefit for analog as analog isn't digital and thus cannot benefit from QAM at all.

17-20 digital channels can be added using a single 6Mhz segment using QAM1024.

3 HD channels can be added using a single 6Mhz segment using QAM1024.

So simply put if you count all the available HD channels BHN offers today you can create a new extra channel for every two HD channels carried today just with QAM1024.

So say BHN offers 30 total HD channels today just by switching to QAM1024 they can get an extra 15 HD channels in the same exact bandwidth they are using for the current 30 HD channels.

Say if they get rid of ten analog channels this will create room for an extra 29 HD channels (30-1=29 because those ten analog channels are still offered in digital and thus take one 6Mhz spot).

Now if your on a 750Mhz system by BHN upgrading to QAM1024 and to a 1Ghz network this will provide an extra 250Mhz of bandwidth. So if they use all of this new bandwidth for HDTV lets figure out how much more HD channels this could give us.

41 segments of 6Mhz we now have. Using QAM1024 this gives us three HD channels per 6Mhz segment. So this now gives BHN bandwidth for an extra 123 HD channels.

Either way this alone that I said above will provide more than enough bandwidth in the future without even touching switched digital video nor switching to say MPEG4. Switching to MPEG4 would require box swapouts though but you never know. But the hassle and cost of swapping boxes out just for MPEG4 isn't worth it when these upgrades above will IMO provide more than enough bandwidth for the next few years at the least.

[Saxamoophone]

Thanks for the awesome write up longhorn!

Makes A LOT more sense to me now.

As an HD-Buff, it's great to see BH putting everything into motion to compete against Dish and DirecTV. And from what I understand MPEG4 is about 40% more efficent than MPEG2, so switching out the boxes in the next 5-10 years should allow BH to easily keep up as digital channels get turned off and replaced with hd-only channels.

[iceturkee]

I dont think there are even 50 HD channels with HD programming!!

wrong again. and even a few of those on directv right now that aren't offering any true hd programming, probably will be doing so before your 50 are turned on.

i think its great that bhn is taking a semi-aggressive campaign to add more hd. their hd sports programming is still basically non-existent. nah, i'll stick to satellite, thanks.

[stevenl]

I just wonder what all the fuss is over "Number of HD" I mean there are some HD channels that are just not worth having. Specially when out of 24hours of programming your lucky to get 203 in HD anyway. But alas the masses are of course idiots and all they see is the numbers. "Wow 150 HD channels!! regardless if 100 of them have maybe an hour or two a day of HD programming! the rest of the time the picture is no more clear then regular digital. But I guess its good to get on the boat, as these stations do begin to add HD content. Id much rather see BHN or any provider start adding the HD channels only as the stations devote themselves to adding more HD content. Take USA network, they have pledged to make their "original series" all in HD so that channel would be a good add, but stations like food network whom have little to no HD programing have simpley only added the HD channel to not be left out.. Perhaps they will start adding more HD content, from that channel, as if seeing the food does not make me hungry enough as it is

[skottey]

Okay I'm going to spill some of the beans with regard to some of the new programming. First this information applies for now only for Bright House Networks Tampa Bay and Central Florida markets. I don't have any contacts beyond these two regions but that isn't to say other BHN regions won't also see these changes.

First BHN right now as we type is upgrading all of Tampa Bay and Central Florida regions to a better 1Ghz network. I just happened to talk with one of the contractors "while" he was replacing each and every one of the boxes with new 1Ghz gear for my entire complex. I watched him moving from building to building over the course of the entire day. I also saw the hardware that was being installed as well and it was indeed 1Ghz gear.

Right now before this upgrade nearly all BHN customers are connected to either a 750Mhz or 860Mhz network. My contacts have also said many of the things Stevenl has been saying. I've been told that part of this 1Ghz upgrade will also included the transition from 256QAM to 1024QAM which will create even more bandwidth. Also DOCSIS 3.0 will soon be deployed along with the change from 16QAM to 256QAM for the internet. This alone once upgraded will allow BHN to upgrade their base internet package to 20Mbps down and 3Mbps Up at no extra charge. These are the speeds I'm hearing but this could change though.

I've also been told that around another 5-10 analog channels will be converted to digital only as well. I've been told that Central Florida is quite a bit further behind on these upgrades compared to the Tampa Bay market but not that far behind. My contacts are saying that the Tampa Bay area will see the new HD channels etc within the first half of 2008 while most of the Central Florida market will most likely be within the second half of 2008.

I will create a second post to go over the new programming we will see along with "why" BHN is able to add these new channels.

We are getting 6-10 new HD channels in the Tampa market next week, rolled out Dec 11-12. This goes along with a channel re-alignment so all counties will have the same channels on the same channel. I am going to have to get used to watching my Fox News on channel 37 now, I think it is.

I welcome the 50 channels over 18 months.. Maybe I will be able to drop my secondary service, Dish. BHN is probably taking a hit from Verizon FIOS over here and had to do something. This is good.