NBC and HD announcements as they ready a 15 market roll out to major markets

A little while ago I mentioned that AT&T was testing high-definition in their IPTV service down in San Antonio before rolling it out to the rest of us heathens. They announced a few more details this week, so here is a rundown of that news:

The company said it is offering "more than 25 HD channels" in the market, including HD broadcasts of local NBC, CBS, ABC and Fox affiliates, as well as several HD cable networks, including ESPN HD, ESPN2 HD, NFL Network HD, HBO HD, Cinemax HD, Showtime HD, The Movie Channel HD, Starz HD, Discovery HD Theater, TNT HD, Universal HD, HDNet, HDNet Movies, A&E HD, hgtv HD, Food Network HD and National Geographic Channel HD.

I must confess that this list of networks is smaller than I expected.

Additional new features AT&T is offering include Web-based access to subscribers' DVRs, the availability of new set-top boxes from Motorola and the ability to record up to four standard-definition programs at once using a DVR receiver.

AT&T is currently offering a single HD stream. Spokeswoman Jenny Parker said the telco plans to enable a second HD stream in 2007, which will allow subscribers to use two streams of HD programming and still have two standard-definition streams to either watch or record.

New U-verse TV HD customers can receive two months of free HD programming, after which HD service is $10 extra per month.

AT&T also cut a carriage deal with NBC Universal which means that they will carry all of NBC's domestic networks. The deal covers NBC's cable networks, including CNBC, CNBC World, MSNBC, Telemundo, mun2, Telemundo Puerto Rico, Bravo, Sci Fi Channel, Sleuth, ShopNBC, USA Network and Universal HD.

AT&T also secured rights to carry NBC's Olympic Games programming on cable. And the deal includes video-on-demand rights for movies from Universal Pictures.