Stay tuned: Cox, Comcast race to premiere HDTV


By Greg A. Lohr
September 20, 2002
Washington Business Journal

Cox Communications soon will offer high-definition TV service in Northern Virginia, beginning in Fairfax County.

The cable company planned to announce Sept. 20 that an HDTV signal will be available Nov. 1 to subscribers in areas of Fairfax where Cox has upgraded its technology. Fairfax would mark the third U.S. market in which Cox offers HDTV.

Even so, Cox might get beaten to the punch locally.

Comcast, the area's dominant cable provider, expects to begin high-definition transmissions in Arlington and Alexandria by early October. Comcast has been testing its service in those counties with employees and some customers, says Mitchell Schmale, spokesman for the Philadelphia-based company (http://www.comcast.com/).

Most commercial and public stations have yet to begin digital broadcasts. The terminology and necessary equipment befuddle many consumers. And even those who have heard of high-definition television may experience sticker shock over the hardware. To take advantage of the enhanced digital signal, they also must buy or lease a high-definition decoder, or tuner. The tuner can cost at least a few hundred dollars as a stand-alone box paired with their digital-ready TV. Or consumers can buy a true HDTV with a built-in decoder, but they'll often pay at least $1,000 more for that convenience.

Perhaps more importantly, the Federal Communications Commission voted in August to require TV manufacturers to install digital tuners in all sets with screens 36 inches or larger. The FCC set a July 1, 2005, deadline for those sets and a deadline two years later for sets with screens 13 inches or larger.

Cox (http://www.cox.com/) plans to lease high-definition tuners for $9.99 a month, a price that Pecaro considers "extremely cheap," given the typical cost of the boxes.

Schmale declined to say how much Comcast will charge for its boxes. He says, however, that the company's existing digital-cable subscribers might not face any additional charges for HDTV, beyond leasing the decoder box.

Cox's high-definition programming will include HBO and Showtime, as well as Discovery High Definition Theater, a channel created by Silver Spring-based Discovery Communications (http://www.discovery.com/). Discovery's high-definition channel will cost Cox customers another $6.99 a month.