Time Warner Boasts of ‘Virtually Unlimited’ HDTV Capacity

Cable Operator to Launched Switched-Digital-Video Technology in One-Half of Systems By Year-End

By Steve Donohue -- Multichannel News, 6/4/2007 10:41:00 PM

Boasting that it will be able to boost channel capacity to carry more HD networks, Time Warner Cable plans to deploy switched-digital-video technology on one-half of its systems nationwide by the end of 2007, chief operating officer Landel Hobbs said Tuesday.

Hobbs acknowledged that Time Warner’s direct-broadcast satellite rivals such as DirecTV have done an effective job of marketing HDTV offerings. “Shame on us because we haven’t really done a good job of marketing [HDTV],” Hobbs said at a Deutche Bank Securities conference in New York Monday.

But he added that SDV technology -- which allows Time Warner and other cable providers to deliver channels to subscribers based on demand, rather than broadcasting hundreds of channels simultaneously -- will give Time Warner “virtually unlimited” HD capacity.