New HD channels being added...

[Greg26001]

New York-area VHO5 today received 696 Universal Sports and 735 Sony Movie Channel.  Available only on Ultimate tier

Why on earth Verizon opted to add HD for a completely unknown and worthless sports network instead of CBS Sports or  Fox Sports 2 is beyond me?  Verizon management makes zero sense.

[bushleaguer]

Can anyone from Verizon say whether or not these two channels are being added across the board or if this is just for VHO5?

I wish the folks doing the programming would give a heads-up to new additions.....nothing in my message box about either of these two.

[Caps09]

Verizon won't say anything about these channels until everyone has them. They will roll out to all areas, but when they add national channels, they do it over one or two weeks.

[Caps09]

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@Greg2600 wrote:

Why on earth Verizon opted to add HD for a completely unknown and worthless sports network instead of CBS Sports or  Fox Sports 2 is beyond me?  Verizon management makes zero sense.

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These look like they are additions related to contractual obligations. I wouldn't be surprised if CBS Sports Network showed up in HD with expanded packages, only because of the recent national carriage renewal between Verizon and CBS. 

Did you guys in the NYC area ever get MSG+2 HD on channel 581?

[bramweiser]

Um, Ch. 198 (at least for me with me Extreme package) IS Fox Sports 2.  It might not be in HD, but it IS in the listings, and available for viewing.

I'd have much preferred for Universal Sports to be available with an SD service regardless of whether or not an HD service is offered, and for it to (again!) be available to those of us in Extreme instead of (as written here) only to Ultimate, as we used to see it on Ch. 464 before Comcast got greedy and took it away.

...and Zap2it says that Universal Sports HD is on Ch. 596, not 696.

[Greg26001]

Typo, I meant 596 not 696 for Universal Sports. 

bushleaguer, I'm pretty sure these will be national adds, over the next few weeks.

Caps09, we don't get MSG 2+ HD, just MSG, MSG+ and MSG 2.

bramweiser, in the past, NBC was more concerned with growing Universal Sports.  When they merged with Comcast,

[Greg26001]

Additional NY-first adds:

ESPN Deportes HD channel 1537

Univision Deportes HD channel 1539

Hola!

[jjlees]

Contrary to the "unknown and worthless" comment, I can't wait for Universal Sports to be up and going again!  I see it on the listing and the schedule on the guide, but no actual broadcast.  Anyone know when it will actually be "on"?

[bramweiser]

Universal Sports HD is apparently available only for Ultimate customers, not Extreme, Prime, etc.  So, jjlees, if you don't have Ultimate (do you?) then you'll see a black screen when you tune to ch596.

[thejoker]

Universal Sports HD (channel 596) is supposedly available to ultimate pack subscribers so why do we need to hit subscribe when tuning into channel 596 to try and watch the channel?  Has anyone hit subscribe and got it working (and not been billed for it)?