Programming

[Gregg Lengling]

NFL Network said it will televise 54 games during the league's four-week preseason this year, all of the games outside of the 11 televised nationally by the NFL's four network partners. Some NFL Network games will air live and some will be shown on tape delay. Traditional NFL broadcast arrangements for the preseason will remain the same, both locally and nationally.

Cablevision/Rainbow DBS service VOOM said it's adding both high-def and standard-definition ESPN Channels including ESPN, ESPN HD, ESPN2, ESPN Classic and ESPNEWS. In addition, VOOM said its customers can now watch golf coverage on The Golf Channel or get news from FOX News Channel. VOOM's HD package includes more than 35 high-def channels such as HBO HDTV, Cinemax HDTV, Showtime HD, STARZ! HD, Playboy HOT HD, The Movie Channel HD, Bravo HD-plus and Discovery HD Theater. In addition, VOOM features 21 commercial-free channels created by Rainbow Media and popular channels in standard definition such as TNT, Nickelodeon, Disney, TBS, CNN, A&E and AMC.

Outdoor Channel Readies HD - Outdoor Channel said it plans to launch a separate network offering its programming in high-def. Outdoor Channel 2 HD is set to debut July 2005 and will offer programming both shared and independent of the existing Outdoor Channel, the company said.