The Smithsonian Channel HD to launch on DirecTV this Wednesday?
by Ben Drawbaugh 
posted Sep 24th 2007 at 12:14PM
The phrase patience is a virtue is what people waiting around tell each other to make themselves feel better. Well the DirecTV fans are no doubt saying this, and while no one seems to know exactly when DirecTV will turn on all the HD channels, we appear to have another slip. According to an article in B&C, the Smithsonian Channel HD will launch this Wednesday on DirecTV. It's totally possible that they'd be ready by then when you consider they did a 3 hour test in the early hours of Sunday morning, but at this point we'll believe it when we see it. As for the channel itself, they say they're launching with 75 hours of HD content. Is it just us, or does this not seem like that much, especially considering there are 168 hours in a week? Who knows what they're going to show the rest of the week, or perhaps they'll just show the same 75 hours over and over again till they bring the number up to 100 by the end of year.
Filed under: Satellite, New content
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
JeffDM @ Sep 24th 2007 7:44PM
Isn't the documentary/science/history field already a bit crowded? It seems like the existing ones already retread the most popular topics a bit much, and there's not so much interest in less popular topics.
Kevin Murphy @ Sep 24th 2007 11:22PM
75 hours/week of original content is more than many stations have now. Of course after a month of the same loop, one might get bored.
Will Maitner @ Sep 25th 2007 7:00PM
Right.. When I called DirecTV just now about the HD channels, the rep told me they pushed the rollout back to the end of the year.. Wednesday my ass..
Mexigun @ Sep 26th 2007 7:34AM
IT'S HERE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
roger_huston @ Sep 26th 2007 2:10PM
Confirmed DirectTV has released 21 new channels TODAY.
www.directv.com/HD shows the new list and there are numerous guide channels. The list is mostly premium
BTW, the new channels did not work for me this morning as it said I had not subscribed to the new channels, even though I could see the SD ones. I had to call DirecTV and a rep had to re-add them by hand.
- Roger