Though the conversion to digital TV has been delayed months from its original deadline of February 17, cable operator RCN Corp. (RCNI) claims it will be all-digital by the end of January.
By the end of this month, RCN said it expects to achieve 100 percent digital penetration into all metro consumer markets, including Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Washington D.C., and Chicago. The company began the effort early last year.
The motivation? RCN has already claimed that the conversion has freed up available spectrum that lets it speed rollouts of high-definition (HD) and international programming. The cableco maintains the cutover also fuels operational, maintenance, and cost-efficiency benefits, that it did not quantify.
RCN claims its transition effort, called Analog Crush, has resulted in better video quality, and has more than doubled the number of video channels, increasing from 80 analog to nearly 200 digital channels, on its expanded basic tier.
The cable contender adds that the move to all-digital has helped it accelerating its HD channel rollout, which is expected to surpass 100 channels in March and add 150 international channels and VoD offerings through RCN’s Global Passport tier.
“Completing our Analog Crush project is a major strategic move for RCN,” commented RCN CEO and president Peter Aquino, in prepared comments. “By reclaiming bandwidth, RCN established the freedom to offer our customers an all-digital explosion of entertainment choices and more expanded basic digital TV channels than ever before.”
Aquino claims RCN, with this important initiative and major capex spend in metro markets behind it, “we now have increased capital flexibility in 2009.”
The CEO did not say what the capital will be spent on, or whether it will be spent at all.
