What's with Comcast and CBS in Philly? This lack of coverage is getting to be a joke with CBS high definition content covering college and pro football now and Comcast left out in the cold..

Comcast doesn't serve CBS high definition in Boston either. Is it not nationwide?

I've heard that CBS wants a lot of money for this, and apparently they have a philosophy that the customer should pay extra for high definition. However Comcast doesn't want to add extra charges for this channel so they haven't been able to agree.

Apparently they're still trying to work something out.......hopefully soon.

This is all from a friend of mine, and who knows if it's true or not.....

Actually it has little to do with money wanted by CBS. It has everything to do with compression. CBS has said that they spent a ton of money to send out a super picture and any carrier that wants to repeat that signal must not compress the signal. Comcast wants to, and does, compress it's signals to the point of degradation of the picture. The stand-off is between Comcast and the owned and operated CBS stations. There are some areas that Comcast carries CBS but they are independent CBS stations.

Because CBS is not carried in Markets where CBS owns the stations, (PHL, NY, BOS, DET, etc) when do you think Comcast Cable HDTV viewers will make a ratings impact? Obviously during Prime Time, I never watch a new CBS show if there is an option of an ABC or NBC HDTV show and I've heard others say the same thing. (That they gravitate to HDTV shows, and since the major markets lack CBS on Cable is there a ratings impact yet)


At some point I see CBS having to give in although I agree with them that Comcast should give them more bandwith for their broadcast. Until there is a Ratings impact I don't see this getting settled. Although I'm in the NY Market, I see Phila as the first test because COMCAST has a huge market share in that Market. So for now the Phila guys are going to have to make noise to get this think on the radar screen.

"Obviously during Prime Time, I never watch a new CBS show if there is an option of an ABC or NBC HDTV show and I've heard others say the same thing."

Same here. I pass on a lot of CBS prime-time that I normally would watch because of what's in HD on another channel.

It is too bad that CBS and Comcast have not come to terms. Personally it matters not because I am using an OTA antenna to pick up the local (Philly) CBS affiliate. And I must say that CBS has almost continuous prime time programming in HD, many good shows and the picture quality is better than any of the NBC or ABC programs which I pick up via Comcast cable since my present antenna does not seem good enough to pick up those higher numbered UHF channels. I do plan to upgrade my antenna in the near future. Then I will only have to rely on Comcast for ESPN, Comcast Sports Net and HBO. The one cable HD station that has brilliant HD programming is PBS but much of the material is repeated over and over again.

PBS is a promotional demonstration. It is in 1080i. It is as good as it gets and is OTA. I get it as well on a outdoor CM bedspring. Soudstage is an awesome free program that they carry. I need to get the Zenith OTA HD recorder to start saving this great programing site!

In my area (central Indiana) Comcast carries CBS but not ABC. Go figure.

Comcast carries the CBS affiliate in the Wash, DC area, WUSA-TV. Watched the Cowboys-Bills game yesterday in all its HD glory.