Comcast for the past few months was alleging that they had “more HD channels” than satellite providers. Obviously, many Comcast customers were not happy with that false advertising…
What Comcast was doing, was counting each offering of an HD On Demand program as counting as a “channel”. Since satellite On Demand programming is not as expansive as cable (due to the inherent limitations of satellite technology), Comcast turned a molehill of comparison into a mountain.
Worse, Comcast didn’t even advertise On Demand programming as separate channels. Instead, On Demand is billed as “Channel 1”, a singular channel. So, recently Comcast changed their tune. Now they claim to offer “More HD Choices” than satellite providers.
The truth is, cable is catching up, but still behind satellite. Satellite providers aren’t fully in the clear, as DirecTV downsamples HD content (what’s known as HD Lite) in order to push more channels to customers.
I personally don’t know who to chose when I pick providers for my new house. I may wind up going with DirecTV if their Windows Media Center integration doesn’t DRM everything (a la CableCARD)… I’m not holding my breath though.