I contacted Fred Dressler, corp VP of programming for Time Warner and he said they're still in negotiations with Disney, but there's hope TWC might get ESPN2HD added in time for the World Cup.
That's been the word from Dressler since January... in negotiations, but no date. It would be really awesome to get it before the CL final. Is there anything else we can do other than e-mail this one guy? It doesn't seem to help much. Can ESPN be prodded somehow? What big cable companies do have ESPN2HD? Cox? Charter? Comcast doesn't, I know.
I have Charter and I have been asking them to add ESPN2HD, but I keep getting the same answer everyone is getting: they are working on negotiations, they care about my request, etc, etc. I have even just kept asking that they at least add it temporarily. Fingers crossed, but I have my drop dead date where I don't think they will get it, and I will have to call DirectTV or Dish.
Somebody e-mailed my local Time Warner Cable about getting new HD channels and the response was that there is a requirement that 50% of a channel's programming to be actual HD before they'll add an HD channel. Maybe that is a TWC corporate policy, or maybe it's just local, but ESPN2HD doesn't currently come even close to making that 50% (which it should during the WC)... I've pretty much lost all hope of seeing those 31 games in HD, but we'll keep an ear to the ground.
Agreed. Charter has basically said the same thing. I'll probably try to hit a bar for the big games on ESPN2HD during the first round: Opening game, US/Ghana, etc. Then watch any other first round games on regular ESPN2.
Got ESPN2-HD well in advance on DISH, baby!!! ESPN2-HD will absolutely rock next Wednesday for Champions League final!!!
Just learned of no ESPN2-HD after picking up my HD-DVR box and adding the VIP HD package this past weekend...so the Czech match won't be in HD, this BLOWS!!!!!! I can't believe after all that friggin' advertising that it won't get done in time.
I'm sure he means all the ads on the ABC, ESPN and ESPN2 stating all 64 matches will be in HD.. For them people putting pressure on the providers is a good thing as it helps them in their negotiations, though I'm not sure how much of a crowd is pressuring the providers...
I have been still hounding Charter, and while I haven't got an official "not in time" statement - I have to say I have zero confidence they will pull it off. There's no way Charter gets it, and not Comcast or TW.
Let's try some (very tongue-in-cheek) calculations about 5 million people will watch more than 2-3 World Cup games. ~ 5% of those people will make sure to watch in HD when they can: 250K ~ 10% of the HD people care that they won't get ESPN2 games in HD: 25K ~ 1% of those will complain: 250 people mighty pressure ESPN is putting on the cablecos...
Same old. A week away, I think I can safely write that if your only programming provider is Time Warner Cable, you ain't getting ESPN2HD in time for WC. Even the possibility of a last-minute arrangement looks shot because by the time the local TWCs added the channel the group stage would probably be over.
Comcast got it.. and chance for Time Warner? Checked my cable before I went to bed last night, no magical ESPN2HD. Anyone know of any promising signs that it might show up?
Re: Comcast got it.. and chance for Time Warner? Give Fred Dressler a call at 203-328-0612. He's Time Warner's Executive VP for Programming. He'll probably enjoy hearing from you as much as he enjoyed hearing from me. Let's keep his phone ringing today so he doesn't get lonely. Let him know that Concast pulled it off at the last minute and that he could probably just turn off one of the senseless duplicate HBO HD's they fill the slots with if he's looking for bandwidth.
Funny enough, twc posted an ad for the world cup games on the first page of its nyc website! As if they cared... I also sent a nasty email to Mr Dressler. The best thing we can do is to drop TWC as soon as we have another option (for me, not very soon...) Actually, TWC freaked me out for a while because they have a schedule on their website(http://www.timewarnercable.com/nyandnj/programming/worldcup.html) that does NOT have ESPN-HD showing any games after the group stage (they have ESPN2 instead). I checked the ESPN website, and it confirmed the information that I had from soccertv.com (ESPN-HD and ABC-HD will show most games after the group stage). Can someone confirm that this is the correct schedule? We have had it bad enough...