Once upon a time, a smattering of new HD channels in one major metropolitan area was a huge deal. Nowadays, it's almost expected that one area or another will experience some HD expansion each week. In order to keep things nice and tidy around here, we deliver high-def expansions, market expansions and anything else dealing with HD channel growth right here. If we missed an area that you're familiar with, drop us a line in comments so everyone can catch up. The more the merrier, we say!

Read - Suddenlink to add 7 new HD channels
Read - Cox Launches New HD Channels in Line-Up, Including Family-Friendly Channels
Read - Mediacom adds channels to its cable-TV lineups
Read - FiOS TV To Add Six MTVN HD Channels
Read - Atlantic Broadband adds 14 HD channels today for Aiken
Read - Mediacom announces new channels (Mason City, Iowa)
Read - Cablevision Completes 100 HD Channel Rollout [Thanks, Ian]
Read - Big Ten Network Joins Cablevision's iO TV Line-up [Thanks, Ian]
KSTP Channel 5 Twin Cities offering HD local new [Thanks, Chance]

Nothing spectacular recently in FiOS TV expansion news, but we're sure East Syracuse, North Syracuse and Cicero New York residents are happy to be included in the communities that have reached franchise agreements to allow for upcoming service rollouts. Of course, upgraded internet speeds and related free netbook / camcorder / Entourage promotions are nothing to shake a stick at, so for those who survived the DTV transition intact, there is something new to look forward to beyond a few new local channels in Long Island and New Jersey.

Read - Three Central New York Communities Take Step Closer to Real TV Competition
Read - Verizon FiOS Extends the Ultimate 'Entourage' Experience to Fans of HBO Series
Read - Verizon Amps Up FiOS Internet With Increased Two-Way Speeds and Launches Free Netbook/Camcorder Promotion
Read - Verizon Launches FiOS1 Channels on Long Island and in Northern New Jersey; Verizon FiOS Brings Consumers an Exciting, New Source for Hyper-Local Content With News, Sports, Traffic, Weather and So Much More
Read - Verizon FiOS TV Customers Cruise Through Digital Transition

FiOS TV expansions continued as usual this week, with two new areas in New York signing up for the service as Verizon made note of its infrastructure investments in the area, and the company switched on access in Marblehead, Mass. Otherwise, there was a note about the VOD offerings (no mention of 1080p,) but not much else this week.

Read - Video That Is in Demand is 'On Demand' From Verizon
Read - Two Additional New York Communities Approve Television Franchises for Verizon
Read - Upstate New York Areas Benefit Through Verizon's Network Investments for Region
Read - More Cable TV Choice for Consumers in Marblehead, Mass

Not too much of note around Verizon's FiOS TV unit this week, but we're sure the residents of Wrentham, Mass are happy to know it's been approved for their area while Charles County, Md. finally has service available, after it was authorized May 20. How does Verizon manage enough workers to keep expansions going at that pace? We think the second link might help to explain that.

Read - TV Choice and Competition Near for Residents of Wrentham, Mass.
Read - For Third Consecutive Year, Conceive Magazine Names Verizon to Publication's List of 50 Best Fertility- and Adoption-Friendly Workplaces
Read - Verizon Makes FiOS TV Available to Nearly 8,000 Households in Charles County, Md., Following Recent Cable Franchise Approval

Once upon a time, a smattering of new HD channels in one major metropolitan area was a huge deal. Nowadays, it's almost expected that one area or another will experience some HD expansion each week. In order to keep things nice and tidy around here, we deliver high-def expansions, market expansions and anything else dealing with HD channel growth right here. If we missed an area that you're familiar with, drop us a line in comments so everyone can catch up. The more the merrier, we say!


Read - Time Warner Cable launches Smithsonian Channel in high definition
Read - Brighthouse Tampa Bay adds Fox News, MLB Network, SPEED, WGN America, CNBC, AMC, Bio, WZRA (Thanks, Kaylan)
Read - Comcast adds Speed/FX/Fox News in New Jersey (Thanks, Sriram)
Read - Massive Comcast additions coming to Ann Arbor "Soon" (Thanks, Jordan)
Read - Verizon adds 8 new HD channels in Tampa Bay (Thanks, Mike)

While you're kicking back and enjoying some HD content on a lazy Sunday it is easy to give little regard to the economics that make that HD content possible. Most don't care much about what makes the world go around, but if you've always wondered why there aren't more all-HD channels, this recent post over at Multichannel news is worth the read. Most notable is the challenges all-HD networks face including the fact that Nielsen doesn't even provide rating for them. If you're a big Mark Cuban fan you might also find it interesting as a number of his quotes are included like when he says "We really think that as our distribution continues to grow, we can dominate the demographic (13-34 males)."

After taking a week off from making any expansions of note, Verizon's back to its old self, delivering FiOS TV to residents of North Texas covering more than 27,000 households in Allen, Bartonville, Colleyville, Double Oak, Flower Mound, Frisco, Grapevine, Keller, Plano and Watauga. In a look ahead, its business unit just finished testing out some 100G (gigabytes per second testing) in the UK, promising higher speeds for its optical networks in the future which we're sure will someday trickle down to the lowly consumer level. Also, the company checked in with the FCC to argue against cable TV providers from blocking its access to regional sports networks. Finally, we've just got to give a shout out to former EHD lead, current jkOnTheRun Managing Editor and good friend Kevin Tofel for getting FiOS in his neck of the woods and apparently not waiting a moment to sign up. That should about cover it, let us know if you saw any other happenings in the last seven days in the comments.

Read - Verizon Asks FCC to Prevent Cable Companies From Blocking Access to Regional Sports Programming
Read - Verizon Business Completes 100G Trial With U.K. Research and Education Network
Read - FiOS Broadband and TV Services Now Available to More Residential Consumers in North Texas
Read - FiOS IS AVAILABLE!!!!

This has been an odd week for Verizon FiOS TV news, with 69,000 subs finding out they will be Frontier customers within the next year (for what it's worth, the promise is there will be no changes, at least for a year.) Still, there's at least one bit of expansion to balance things out, with six new HD channels including Comedy.TV, Recipe.TV, ES.TV, MyDestination.TV, Cars.TV and Pets.TV. The future is also bright, with word that streaming internet video is coming to FiOS TV boxes with Dailymotion, Veoh Networks and Blip.TV signed on for the service launching sometime in the second quarter. It will require a PC running Media Manager software PlayOn-style to transcode the clips, but FiOS viewers can browse with their standard remotes, plus Twitter and Facebook access is still on the way.

Read - Verizon FiOS TV Customers Get Six New HD Channels From Entertainment Studios
Read - Verizon to Divest Wireline Businesses in 14 States; Significant Benefits to Verizon Shareholders
Read - Next On FiOS: Web Videos On Your Flat-Panel TV

This is uh....odd. We've gotten so used to FiOS TV creeping into new areas that we've had to create a weekly roundup just to keep track, but today the company announced it is pulling out of rural areas in 14 states, turning over operations to Frontier Communications. The transition should take place over the next year, and includes around 69,000 FiOS TV subscribers in Arizona, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Ohio, Oregon, South Carolina, Washington, West Virginia and Wisconsin, plus some in California (Note: FiOS wasn't yet available in all the areas affected by the switch, so this only applies where it was.) Fiber to the premises and video will still be provided after the merger, and the 11,000 Verizon employees in these areas will transfer over as well. The real questions is if affected subs can expect the same packages and level of service they've come to expect, but really it seems we'll just have to wait and see.

Time for more FiOS TV expansion news, this week Gaithersburg, MD and Asharoken officially opened their arms to the service, while Mendon, Mass shouldn't be too far behind. All in all a busy week, even without any areas actually flipping the switch on new service just yet. The last entry? Just a reminder.

Read - Gaithersburg, Md., Awards Cable Franchise to Verizon
Read - Asharoken Is Latest Long Island Municipality to Join FiOS TV Revolution
Read - TV Choice and Competition Near for Residents of Mendon, Mass.
Read - 'Hello, Mom. It's Me on the Phone!'

After being "bombarded by inquiries" about integration the first lucky dance partner for VUDU as a service is Entone, maker of IPTV set-top boxes. Entone's CEO is a little over the top in describing the VUDU + (whatever service provider is first to offer this combo) as the first time two competing visions come together in one unified service (Amazon VOD + TiVo, Xbox 360 + Netflix, we could go on) but it would be an original twist for customers to get the box directly from their TV operator. Expected to launch this summer, it could get VUDU's HD and HDX movies into customers homes without dropping $149 on a single use additional box, but until one of Entone's 50+ telco carriers actually opts for the service it's all just a (good) idea.

We hope you weren't too attached to the old FiOS TV guide and video on-demand setup, as these screens would indicate an upgrade is on its way. Our tipster let us know these screens were a part of a survey that focused on which version of the guide was best (Verizon - we've got plenty of suggestions for you right here.) We like the widescreen layout they're indicating, and that 1080p notation underneath the Quantum of Solace box shown above isn't too shabby either. The price of $29.99 to buy an HD copy? Not so sweet. Check out the rest of the screens in the gallery and let us know if they pass the test.

[Thanks, Matt!]

About time for Verizon to roll out some new FiOS TV expansions, so California and Maryland are the latest to offer the service in all new areas in the last week. Still, we can't move forward without looking back, so here's Verizon's Q1 numbers, including 299,000 new subscribers for a total of 2.2 million. No new HD channels this week but the Direct Kick should bring home plenty of SD soccer while Chinese programming has a 24 hour home on Sino TV. If that's not enough there's $2.99 (presumably SD) editions of Marley and Me, Doubt and Frost/Nixon on video on-demand all month. See you next week!

Read - Verizon Communications Reports Revenue, Earnings and Cash Flow Growth in 1Q 2009
Read - Soccer Fans Score With MLS 'Direct Kick' Package, Now Available on Verizon FiOS TV
Read - Verizon FiOS TV Adds Leading Chinese Channel, Sino TV, to Growing Asian Content Offering
Read - More Than 1 Million Households in California Now Have Access to Verizon's All-Fiber-Optic FiOS TV Service
Read - More Cable Choice Comes to Maryland as Verizon Launches FiOS TV in Harford County
Read - Cut Movie Ticket Expenses in Half With $2.99 Box Office Hits From Verizon FiOS TV Video-on-Demand

With the weather warming up, Verizon's finally started adding a few more areas again, signing on seven new housing developments for FiOS TV, and reminding potential customers how easy the switch can be. Even though its YES Network deal didn't include Yankees games, Mets fans can enjoy their jetstream-less field and game on video on-demand, and everyone can celebrate remote DVR scheduling.

Read - Verizon FiOS TV Offers New York Area Customers Free Mets Games On-Demand From SNY
Read - Verizon Offers Ultimate Home Upgrade With Easy, Affordable Switch From Cable to Advanced, All-Fiber-Optic FiOS Services
Read - Seven More Long Island and Queens Housing Complexes Sign On to Receive Verizon's FiOS TV and Internet Services
Read - Verizon Expands Advanced, Remote DVR Management Service to More FiOS TV Customers