Comcast offers AMC’s 'The Prisoner’ Next-Day VOD in HD

Comcast will take full advantage of a remake of the cult classic British TV series “The Prisoner,” coming up in HD on AMC, by offering original episodes of the 40 year-old series (without AMC’s input) in SD on the cabler’s on-demand service.

AMC plans to air a three-night miniseries, that’s billed as a “reinterpretation” of the old series which starred the late Patrick McGoohan, on three consecutive nights starting Sunday, Nov. 15.

As part of some creative “programming” of its own, Comcast has begun offering the original 17 episodes of the series on-demand for its subs through Nov. 30--thereby overlapping the six-hour miniseries airing on AMC and in next day on-demand mode. (It launched the old-episodes phase on Oct. 15 as a means of promoting both the upcoming AMC miniseries and its next-day service coming up in November.)

The two-hour nightly episodes in the new miniseries will air in HD, and be available to Comcast’s HD subs in HD as well. The miniseries stars Ian McKellen of the “Lord of the Rings” movies and scores of other films, and Jim Caviezel, who played Jesus in “Passion of the Christ.” For cult fans, Caviezel is the main character, Number Six, while Sir Ian is Number Two.

Accessing both the old episodes and the next day/on-demand new miniseries will be free to current Comcast subs.