Effective today, Videotron has announced more High Definition programming, bringing its total to 20 HD channels, many of them available with no monthly charge.
We have written before about the power of HD as a means to confound telco IP-TV plans. For the near future, homes with multiple HD TV sets will find IP-TV to be incapable of providing sufficient capacity to feed HD broadcast programming to more than one receiver. The more channels that are available in HD, the more likely a home will be to demand more than one HD feed.
In the meantime, Videotron and other cable companies are locking-in subscribers with sales of set-top boxes and personal video recorders that serve as disincentives for subscribers to switch to IP-TV. Each time an analog cable subscriber converts to digital represents an even more expensive acquisition for telco IP-TV service. A subscriber that has just paid $300-$600 for a cable set-top box is going to be less likely to switch service providers.
When will we see more than MTS with telco HDTV service? We’ll have a look at MTS financials later today.