Yesterday I was talking with a friend from Dish Network about the article and surprisingly he agrees with what I said. He acknowledged that because of DirecTV's annuncements it has "greatly accelerated" their HD plans.
Then you should have said that Scott. Announcements may scare the others to accelerate their plans but that does not make them the leader in HDTV any more than it would me being the leader in Satellite DBS forums if I made an announcement in cluding an ad campaign that I was planning to have the largest forum with over a million members sometime soon. Then in a year, I downgrade that to half a million, then in another year I downgrade that to a quarter million. What I disagree with you Scott is you placing D* into that "leadership" category based on shallow advertising campaign when they have done much less than the others in the past 3 years. IN fact they were also accused of and were sued for having the worst HD quality. I work in advertising and I know what shallow is. I also know that it works on enough people to spend the effort. It sure worked on you, the last person I would have suspected. But while Comcast and other cable companies plus Dish Network are steadily adding HD content, D* subscribers have to enjoy the ads. and fuzzy looking HD. Now that they have begun to do MP4, They are playing catch up in the HD quaity department as well. Is that leadership?
Here's my prediction- I predict that D* will make claims to the numbers by listing many of their sports HD channels which really are part time channels. I don't deny these are good high quality channels, they are just part time.
Everyone has their idea of what counts as a "National HD channel" What I consider a national HD channel is any channel that operates, 24/7/365. If it doesn't meet that time frame than it doesn't count. However it does count as a sports channel in HD.
I have always said that D* is the leader in Sports HD.
