So that's where the bandwidth for that new crop of HD channels came from...

Various websites including Engadget HD and TVPredictions.com reported Tuesday that Dish Network subscribers lost a handful of their HD channels Monday night -- all of which were part of the Voom brand of niche HD channels -- with only Equator, Kung Fu, Rush, Rave and Monsters remaining. 

Dish Network chairman Charlie Ergen says Dish Network "will be taking down the rest as soon as we can," according to Multichannel News.  As of Tuesday night, they did, according to a report Wednesday morning on TVPredictions.com.

Voom is owned by Rainbow Media, a subsidiary of Cablevision.   Now with Voom channels only available on a small handful of Cablevision markets on the east coast, this announcement is a big blow to niche-network company.  This leaves analysts questioning whether Voom can survive without a nationwide carriage partner. 

Voom and Dish Network have been embroiled in legal spats lately, with a judge recently denying an injunction request by Voom to keep their channels on Dish's widely-available HD tier.  Dish briefly moved the channels to a higher tier before picking off the first ten Monday night.

If you're a Dish Network subscriber, prepare to have a really, really good Monday.

According to a press release picked up via CNN, Dish Network will flip the switch on twenty -- yes, 20 -- new HD networks starting Monday, May 12th.  Apparently the rumors of Dish Network's competitive demise after that failed satellite launch earlier this spring were greatly exagerrated.  According to the release, Dish plans to add the following channels:

• ABC Family HD
• Biography HD
• Bravo HD
• Cartoon HD
• Cinemax HD West
• Cinemax 5 Star
• CNBC HD
• CNN HD
• Disney HD East
• ESPNews HD
• Hallmark Movie Channel HD
• MGM HD
• Sci Fi HD
• Smithsonian HD
• Tennis Channel HD
• Toon Disney HD
• Travel Channel HD
• USA HD
• Weather Channel HD
• World Fishing Network HD

They also launched a pair of regional sports channels that don't affect our area.  This is certainly an interesting development, pushing both satellite providers over 60 national HD channels available in the Fox Cities area.

Green Bay CBS affiliate WFRV will once again produce three pre-season Packer games this season, in cooperation with CBS Sports.  The announcement was made today and published in a Post-Crescent article.  The games are as follows:

• Saturday, Aug. 16, at 8 p.m. at San Francisco 49ers
• Friday, Aug. 22 at 8 p.m. at Denver Broncos
• Thursday, Aug. 28 at 7 p.m. vs. Tennessee Titans

Kevin Harlan and Rich Gannon will call the game.  Larry McCarren will do pre- and post-game analysis, and WTMJ sports reporter Jessie Garcia will do sideline duty.  There is no immediate word on whether the games will be available in HD.  We wouldn't expect they would be, but if CBS Sports in New York is involved, I wouldn't rule it out.

There is also no immediate word on C-Band satellite coordinates for the games.  WFRV traditionally provides those for viewers outside of the area who wish to tune in the games manually, but issues coordinates closer to the preseason.

In a move that has the hopefuls among us crossing our fingers for more HD, Time Warner is shifting and consolidating a few channels in our local lineup.

As of May 29th, Time Warner Cable's (Northeast) Wisconsin division will be discontinuing the west coast feeds of The Movie Channel (TMC), TMC Extra, SHO Beyond, SHO Next, SHO Family, and SHO Women.  Worry not, though... the east coast feeds aren't going anywhere.  Time Warner and many other cable operators have traditionally offered both east and west coast feeds of their premium movie channel offerings.  But with more and more HD channels squeezing into cable systems nationwide, some cable companies are dropping duplicate premium feeds to free up space.

HBO and Cinemax duplicate feeds don't appear to be in crosshairs at the moment.  I wouldn't get too attached to them, though, if you get my drift.  There's a lot of them, and that's premium real estate (no pun intended).

Also on the Time Warner docket, according to channel notifications posted on their website, the Time Warner info channel now located at channel 72 will be going away as of May 14th.  This will, no doubt, be sad news to the one, maybe two, of you out there crazy enough to DVR those digital phone commercials.

In "on demand" news, those incarnations of Golf and Speed Channel will be folded into "Sports On Demand" on channel 1104 on May 30th.  This follows many other channels whose on demand programming has been tucked neatly into such broad channel headings as "Entertainment On Demand" and "Lifestyle on Demand."

After months of seeing the promos for it on their On Demand menus, it appears that Time Warner Cable has finally launched their HD Showcase On Demand channel on 1102.  It doesn't look "fully launched," because it is labeled as "HD Movies On Demand" and it asks you to confirm you want to view it before playback.

At the moment, it has a limited selection of titles from networks like HDNet, HGTV, Mojo, and others.  What is more curious is the inclusion of Speed Channel, Food Network and BBC America high-def content, as Time Warner hasn't added these HD channels to its lineup in this area.  (Yet?)