Noteworthy News

by Sammy Satellite. – Staff Writer for n2news

The US Senate voted on Monday to postpone the upcoming transition from analog to digital broadcasting.   The new date would be June 12^th, 2009 instead of February 17^th.   The funding limit for converter boxes had already been reached and there are a significant number of people still waiting for a coupon so they can upgrade.   Those in the know have already switched to FTA but others now have 4 more months to figure out what to do.    The House, however, rejected the delay and it would appear that the date will not chance.  Nielson, a large ratings company in the US, suggests only 6% of houses are still not prepared for the transition.    I would guess that those people don’t watch a lot of TV anyway.

Comcast’s advertising sales division Comcast Spotlight and DISH Network announced a new agreement under which Comcast Spotlight will sell ads on DISH’s 10 regional sports networks in seven U.S. markets. The markets involved include Boston, Detroit, Chicago, San Francisco, Denver, Atlanta and Houston.

VOOM HD Networks extended an agreement with British Sky Broadcasting to bring RUSH HD content to GO!VIEW, a subscription video-on-demand offering. Owners of the PlayStation Portable who subscribe to GO!VIEW can access the extreme-sports content from the service.   Also available through the GO!VIEW “Sports” package is content from ESPN and Sky Sports.

Cablevision has ditched carriage of the VOOM networks, replacing the high-def channels with content from the big three premium programmers.

Ciel-2 (replacing E5 at 129 shortly as I mentioned in my last Noteworthy report) is revving up with HD locals for Atlanta, Austin, Beaumont, Charlotte, Chicago, Cleveland, Columbus, Des Moines, Detroit, Fargo, Fort Myers, Grand Rapids, Green Bay, Joplin, Kansas City, Lincoln, Los Angeles, Memphis, Minneapolis, Mobile, Nashville, Norfolk, Omaha, Orlando, Palm Springs, Peoria, Pittsburgh, Raleigh, Richmond, Roanoke, Sherman-Ada, St. Louis, Tampa, Topeka, Waco, West Palm Beach, Wichita Falls, Abilene, Casper, Charlottesville, Charleston-Huntington WV, Clarksburg-Weston WV, Columbus again, Dayton, Erie, San Angelo, Sioux City, Wausau, Fairbanks, Juneau, Indianapolis, Bakersfield, and many, many other markets!

It seems the Pakistan channels on sat providers are going N3.  Watch for other small markets to come.  More details in my next Noteworthy News report.

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