DVR Chatter

Showtime: Cable Playing 'Catch-Up' On HD

TV PREDICTIONS - Several cable TV operators, such as Comcast and Time Warner, have said recently that their high-def offerings are equal to or better than DIRECTV's new expanded HD lineup.

But a top Showtime executive says that's just spin.

"They're trying to spin the best story they can in terms of matching what DIRECTV has put up there," Showtime Networks executive vice president Tom Christie says in this week's edition of Multichannel News.

Christie tells the publication that "everything" will be in HD in five years but cable is now "playing a catch-up game."

Showtime's high-def channel is carried by most cable operators, but many other HD channel simulcasts can't find spots in cable lineups due to bandwidth constraints.

You don't think they had Comcast in mind when they said this ... do you?