In the latest battle for HiDef supremacy amongst satellite and cable service providers, DISH Network announced today that it now offers 200 HD channels, including the first national delivery of the nine-month-old EPIX HD premium movie network.
Other new additions include G4 HD, Headline News HD, History International HD, Nat Geo Wild HD, ShortsHD, Style HD and Turner Classic Movies HD.
EPIX is a 720p HiDef channel launched late last October by Paramount, MGM, and Lionsgate. Until now it had mostly only been available regionally via the Verizon FiOS TV service.
Similar to the high-profile chest-thumping and competitor-bashing of cell service providers Verizon and AT&T, satellite services DISH and DirecTV battle publicly through advertising and lawsuits over which offers the most HiDef channels.
Cable systems have been struggling to even stay in the game — a new DirecTV television commercial features Alex Trebek as host of the game show “To Tell the Truth” with DirecTV and DISH Network challenging the veracity of each other’s claims about customer satisfaction, while the third contestant, “the cable guy,” is late because he can only show up between 12 – 4.
“While others repeatedly claim they have the capacity to offer 200 HD channels, only DISH Network has delivered,” said Tom Cullen, executive vice president of Sales, Marketing and Programming for DISH Network.
The new HiDef channel additions can also be viewed via DISH Network’s ViP 922 SlingLoaded DVR with a massive 1 terabyte hard drive , which allows DISH customers to watch via their laptop or mobile device.
— By Scott Hettrick