While Comcast has been near-flawless in keeping HD Notebook up-to-date on its HD enhancements in recent weeks in the greater Washington, D.C. market (DMA 9), which includes some close-in and outlying sectors of Virginia and Maryland, rival Cox Communications (which splits a lot of areas in the same DMA with Comcast) said this week it has added a baker's dozen HD channels to its HD tier.
The additional 13 venues, said Cox, now bring its HD channel tier (including regional sports and premium offerings like HBO) to 78, here on the cusp of the new year.
Similar to Comcast's new additions, Cox's latest 1080i and 720p launches include the HD versions of: ABC Family, BBC America, BET, Disney, Disney XD, Edge, Encore, HBO2, Investigation Discovery, More Max, MSNBC, Tennis Channel, and TMC. (But as if to ruin the festivities, Cox is resorting to that same "HD choices" marketing tactic that Comcast has used with Cox saying it now offers more than "365 HD choices," including bona fide HD channels, free VOD, PPV VOD, and subscription VOD.
While Cox is also boasting that it has no HD programming "access fees" like some of its competitors, for the most part Cox customers must rent HD set-top boxes (with or without DVR options) that do cost a bit more than standard STBs.
