Verizon and Comcast have had an ongoing war of words when it comes to HDTV service, Comcast last year attacking the telco for over-inflating their HD channel count claims. According to a new Verizon blog post they've filed a false advertising complaint against Comcast for a new suite of ads that have apparently irked the telco. Verizon highlights the fact that Comcast isn't in much of a position to talk, given the cable company offers 47 HD Channels to Verizon's 117 -- in Comcast's hometown of Philadelphia. Verizon also raises the pesky fact that Comcast remains at the bottom of the barrel in most consumer satisfaction rankings -- though they have shown improvement in recent months.

Cablevision nudged us this morning to note that the carrier is ramping up HD channel availability. According to Cablevision spokesman Jim Maiella, the company this week is announcing 30 new free HD channels in NYC, and 8 new HD channels across the company's entire service area. Maiella also tells us the carrier should have "more than 100 HD channels available everywhere by June." We've obtained a list (pdf) of all the new channels being added for those interested. Cablevision is engaged in heavy competition with Verizon FiOS, and in addition to ramping up HD channel availability, the carrier is spending $300 million to offer free Wi-Fi to users -- and upgrade to the DOCSIS 3.0. Though Cablevision is not commenting, we believe 100Mbps tiers are currently in testing.

AT&T reached out to us to note that the carrier is now officially offering 100 HD channels in all of the markets where their U-Verse VDSL-based IPTV service is available. "That’s more HD than the local cable competitors in every U-verse TV market," spokesman Seth Bloom tells us. While the 100 channel count will likely be irrelevant a year from now, it's an important marketing metric in telcoTV's push to convert existing cable TV customers -- many of whom aren't thrilled with the limited number of options (for example, Comcast offers as few as 22 HD channels in some markets). The new channels are being added to existing tiers, without a price change (see full release for the particulars).

DirecTV continues its reign as the king of high-definition channel counts, though Verizon's FiOSTV service keeping pace with the satellite operator, according to new analysis by market research provider Pike & Fischer. According to the firm's press release, as of January DirecTV was offering as many as 104 channels in HD -- just one more than Verizon. Meanwhile Comcast, which offers as few as 22 HD channels in some markets, comes in last in the study -- as the company is still working to free up enough capacity to catch up with industry HD leaders. That hasn't stopped Comcast from criticizing Verizon's HD lineup lately. Of course by this time next year, HD channel counts should be a meaningless metric, with carriers competing on image quality (and someday, maybe, price).

The argument over whether to delay the digital TV transition from February 17 to June 12 stumbled last week, when the idea failed to get the required two-thirds majority vote in the House. The House of Representatives spent much of today debating legislation that would delay the digital TV transition from February 17 to June 12, and today ultimately approved the delay, 264-158. Many see the delay as unnecessary, given the people who ignored a year's worth of warnings will probably be equally unprepared on June 12. The hope is that the delay will give the government time to fix a coupon program that offers two free $40 coupons for digital converters to each American family. Budgetary shortfalls in the program resulted in a waiting list for applicants.

Netflix has been making waves in the broadband video space by integrating their service into everything, from the Roku set top and the Xbox 360, to TiVO units and DVD players. Now Netflix says they'll be integrating the service into HDTVs from LG Electronics. This is the first time the Netflix service will be embedded directly into a television. Tim Alessi, director of product development for LG Electronics USA, says the Netflix-enhanced TVs will sell for roughly $200 to $300 more than a regular HDTV set.

Roku, developer of a settop video play that allows Netflix subscribers to stream digital content to their television via broadband, has announced that the device now supports high definition content. Over the next several weeks, the $100 device will be updated automatically with software that integrates a new compression system into the player. Netflix content streamed via the Xbox 360 was already available in high-definition.

Comcast has already successfully delayed FiOSTV's entry into Philadelphia by complaining to city council about issues they care nothing about -- and now the battle is getting, well, snottier. City council members, one of whom is a friend with a Comcast lobbyist, have started taking potshots at each other publicly, the Philadelphia Inquirer reports. Councilman Jim Kenney is accusing Councilman Frank Rizzo of intentionally stalling the hearings over giving Verizon a FiOSTV franchise because of Rizzo's ties to Comcast.

The past few weeks, we've been following Comcast's efforts to slow Verizon's entry into the cable giant's hometown market of Philadelphia, by warning city council that Verizon would only deploy to areas with the highest ROI -- and FiOSTV's entry into the market won't necessarily mean lower TV prices. Neither is untrue, but Comcast's pretense that they're concerned with either is a stretch. The carrier also attacked the volume and quality of Verizon's HD offerings despite offering substantially fewer channels (34 to 107). The attacks seem to have worked, as a Philly FiOS TV franchise approval process that was almost mindlessly flying toward completion has been delayed, with previously ramification-oblivious city council members suddenly concerned with progressing carefully.

The NFL has consistently been a little lacking when it comes to online offerings, frequently overshadowed by bolder efforts by MLB and the NHL. Still locked into their exclusive out-of-market distribution deal with DirecTV ($700 million through 2010), the league continues to cripple themselves, while boxing out millions of potential cable users.

The past few weeks, we've been following Comcast's efforts to slow Verizon's entry into the cable giant's hometown market of Philadelphia, by warning city council that Verizon would only deploy to areas with the highest ROI -- and FiOSTV's entry into the market won't necessarily mean lower TV prices. Neither is untrue, but Comcast's pretense that they're concerned with either of those things is a bit of a stretch.

If you recall, the network neutrality debate truly took off in the States back in 2005, when former SBC (now AT&T) CEO Ed Whitacre told Business Week in an article that Google wanted to use Ed's "pipes", for free. "I ain't going to let them do that because we have spent this capital and we have to have a return on it," insisted Ed at the time.

With Netflix now offering SD & HD streaming via the Xbox 360 (and earlier this year, a $99 device by Roku), Blockbuster took their own shot today at the broadband TV delivery market by releasing a new Blockbuster streaming set-top by 2Wire. According to Reuters, $99 will net you the device and an initial 25 films, after which you'll pay $1.99 to $3.99 per film.

Verizon this morning announced that the telco has completed the digital upgrade for all of their FiOSTV markets. With a smaller footprint than many cable operators, Verizon got an early jump on the FCC's deadline to transition to all-digital service by Feb.17, 2009. Before completing the upgrade, Verizon was transmitting in both analog and digital, and many customers were able to view the analog systems on a TV without a set-top box, CableCard or digital tuner. Verizon started to phase out the simulcast of analog TV feeds back in April. The telco has 1.6 million FiOS TV customers, and like many cable operators, gave away free adapters to impacted customers (though with a few early billing headaches for users).

New data from Leichtman Research Group indicates that 34% of households in the United States have at least one high definition television (HDTV) set -- double the number from two years ago. According to the firm, 22% of all households purchased a new TV set in the past 12 months, and 43% of those consumers spent over $1,000 on their new toy. Most interesting perhaps is that about 18% of individuals with an HDTV continue think that they are watching HD programming, when they're actually watching standard definition content. That number's down from about 25% of confused HD owners back in 2005.

Verizon this week struck a new multi-year deal with Major League Baseball, the agreement bringing the MLB Network and the league's Extra Innings out-of-market package to all FiOS TV customers. According to the company's press release, MLB Network will be available to all Verizon FiOS TV customers as part of the Essentials and Extreme HD packages on Channel 86, when it debuts Jan. 1, 2009. Meanwhile, the MLB Extra Innings package provides up to 80 out-of-market Major League Baseball games per week.

According to the Lexington Herald Reader, Insight Communications is testing a 100Mbps cable broadband service, but is not specifying when they might bring the technology to a broader audience. The article is painfully vague, so we're checking with Insight as to the real scope of their DOCSIS 3.0 testing. In other Insight news, customers in our Insight forum indicate that the carrier is preparing to revamp their high definition channel lineup in December, and has launched a new Insight Digital 4.0 website aimed with highlighting their new channels.

Last week AT&T unveiled their new 18Mbps U-Verse "Max" tier, and users in our U-Verse forum are putting the new offering through its paces. As we discussed last week, the new tier is aimed at all VDSL customers -- even those with connections that are distance-limited at 25Mbps for both TV and data bandwidth.

The other day, users started reporting that they were getting postcards from AT&T, informing them that HD channels currently in their $10 a month U-Verse IPTV HD package would soon be moved to a "Premium" tier, costing users an additional $5 per month. A recent post to the official U-Verse forums (hat tip to Engadget HD) offers more detail found at the official AT&T website. The site notes that the new Premium HD tier will be composed of a whopping three HD channels: Universal HD, MGM HD, and Smithsonian HD. Of course, several satellite and cable competitors offer almost as tepid "premium" HD packages, but that won't make U-Verse subscribers feel any better.

Chatter over at the official AT&T forums (via Engadget HD) indicates that the company is preparing to revamp their HD channel offerings. According to one user, the company is sending out postcards informing users that some HD channels, like Universal HD, will be moving to a new "Premium" U-Verse tier on November 10. Technically that's a price hike, and customers who subscribe to U-Verse bundles (and pay a $10 HD fee) will now need to pay more. It's not clear how much more, since CSRs don't seem sure of the new plan yet, but some users are being told an additional $5.