Discovery Communications said it would introduce 24-hour high-def...
Discovery Communications said it would introduce 24-hour high-definition TV network June 17. Move is intended to support goals of FCC Chmn. Powell’s recent urging content providers to transmit HD programming needed to drive rollout of digital TV, company said.…
Sign up for a free preview to unlock the rest of this article
If your job depends on informed compliance, you need International Trade Today. Delivered every business day and available any time online, only International Trade Today helps you stay current on the increasingly complex international trade regulatory environment.
New network will be called Discovery HD Theater and will include programming on nature, history, world cultures, geographic explorations, science, education, travel, children’s. how-to programming. Discovery said it had more than 115 HD titles ready for transmission and new productions had been commissioned to support new service. Company said Discovery HD Theater would begin transmission at 9 a.m.(EDT) Mon., June 17, to coincide with 17th anniversary of the Discovery Channel’s first transmission June 17, 1985. Discovery COO Judith McHale said network “will more than qualify as one of the 5 HDTV or value-added DTV services urged for carriage by the FCC voluntary action proposal.” Discovery will conduct marketing campaign called “Next Generation Discovery” for its new digital services. Discovery also said it was introducing new subscription video-on-demand (SVoD) service, Discovery on Demand, designed to support rollout of file-served digital TV. New Discovery SVOD service will offer, at any given time, up to 500 titles from Discovery’s programming library. Discovery also has created entry-level, free VoD content service called Choice 10 Discovery. Company is offering service free to distributors who offer it to their digital customers -- move welcomed by Cox Communications, which is one of Discovery’s distributors and major shareholder. Cox CEO James Robbins said Discovery’s offerings “should further the national goal of establishing digital television as the transmission medium of the future.”