DirecTV subscribers to get Tennis Channel HD
By Darren Murph 
posted Apr 17th 2007 7:42AM
posted Apr 17th 2007 7:42AM
Considering that Fox is giving HD-loving baseball viewers the shaft, yet cable will once again regain Extra Innings privileges, it's been quite the whirlwind in HD sports of late. Thankfully, we've got more positive news on the tennis front, as an agreement has reportedly been reached to allow DirecTV subscribers to start catching the Tennis Channel later this summer. According to the network's CEO, a firm date for the launch hasn't been set, but "late August" appears to be a relatively safe bet. Of course, the feed we're all waiting for (yeah, the HD flavor) won't go live until November, but hopefully DirecTV will have had time to set up a few additional HD channels to keep us occupied in the meantime.
Come on. I am getting so tired with DirecTV's HD lineup. How many HD channels, good HD cannels, could DirecTV be offering-like Cinemax, HGTV, MTV, NFL Network? Instead, they offer a channel on par with the Golf Channel (no pun intended). DirecTV is furthest behind the competition in offering HD services and all they have to come up with the Tennis Channel; at what point does DirecTV start taking the market and customer service seriously.
Out of the ones you listed, the only one I'd take before the Tennis channel is NFL Network -- and they do broadcast a lot of the important stuff in HD (channel 95) on that channel, so I don't really mind. MTV? Why? HGTV? I never watch it. Cinemax? I don't buy the premium movie channels (would rather buy/rent HD DVD).
The real questions is whether the Tennis channel will be MPEG-4 or MPEG-2. I'm guessing 4 :(
This news is more for tennis fans than DirecTV subscribers, unless you're both or wish to become a subscriber in order to get The Tennis Channel.
This will mostly have an effect on and in favor of, tennis fans. They're rolling out the SD version first, which, by further compromising existing bandwidth, may further reduce SD picture quality for the time being.
When the HD version debuts it will be along with many of the other new HD channels promised by DirecTV and beamed over the new satellites which, if DirecTV has any shred of common sense and as a favor to it's beleaguered subscribers, will not be HD-Lite.