NBC Universal to carriers: add temporary HD channels or live without Olympics streaming

For a whole slew of individuals across America (particularly those with lackluster Time Warner Cable lineups), the addition of two new temporary high-def stations has been quite the treat. Just prior to the start of the Beijing Olympics, many cable carriers opted to add in an HD Soccer and HD Basketball channel, but if you thought they were just doing so to be nice, you thought wrong. After scads of CableONE subscribers in Idaho were flat shut out of live online streaming, a bit of digging revealed the problem: NBC Universal bundled online streaming into a "premium package" with the previously mentioned stations, which CableONE declined to offer. For the CableONE users, the story does end in on a high note -- they are getting three permanent HD channels instead. For everyone else loving the convenience of online streams, at least you can sleep easy knowing that minor increases in your future bill will likely be used to pay for it. Then again, what is free these days?

[(Unverified) Posted Aug 12th 2008 8:59PM]

Hey. I'm finding it hard to complain with any arrangement that ends with me having USA HD and some other channel I don't care about (and thus have not investigated what it actually is) for two weeks. I'm hoping real hard that USA HD turns permanent somehow.

[spin cycle Posted Aug 12th 2008 9:06PM]

Screw you, NBC. Ridiculous.

[(Unverified) Posted Aug 13th 2008 12:08PM]

Too bad they didn't force Comcast to do the same. No soccer or basketball channels here. For that matter, no Telemundo either.

[(Unverified) Posted Aug 14th 2008 10:38AM]

Good for NBC.

It's pathetic when a network literally has to put a gun to the head of TWC in order for them to add any new HD channels

[(Unverified) Posted Aug 14th 2008 5:15PM]

Screw NBC? It's not their fault. I'd be willing to bet the reason TWC is without USA HD, SCIFI HD and other NBCU networks is all the fault of TWC.

I agree with Arkweld. It is really sad that TWC has to be FORCED to give their customers more HD. Time Warner is truly pathetic. Email Melinda Witmer and tell her you want USA HD and the other NBC Universal networks.

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