• by David Goetzl  @dgoetzl, June 12, 2007

Comcast could well be gearing up for a pricey marketing campaign to combat DirecTV's seemingly successful efforts to claim leadership on the HD front.

A top company executive said last week that the cable operator will offer some 400 high-definition channels by the end of the year, and 800-plus by the close of 2008. In addition, Comcast has data showing that two-thirds of people prefer its HD picture to the satellite feed, according to co-CFO John Alchin.

"We're winning on choice, we're winning on quality, and we're winning on value," Alchin told a group of investors in London, in what sounded like a line lifted from a creative brief.

DirecTV has made a well-publicized pledge to offer 100 HD channels by the end of the year. It recently plugged that it will soon have the capacity to increase the lineup to more than 150. The satellite operator has said it will "offer more HD channels than any other multichannel provider."

But Alchin said Comcast is already ahead, and will continue to create distance. He said a recent moment-in-time snapshot in Comcast's home Philadelphia market showed the MSO had some 24 linear channels in HD, plus about 175 additional feeds, versus 17 on DirecTV. When DirecTV makes it to the 150 mark, Comcast will be at 800.

He also referenced a "private independent study" that Comcast commissioned gauging viewer reaction to a side-by-side comparison of Comcast's HD picture to satellite. "The outcome was clear and resounding," he said, citing results that two-thirds preferred the Comcast version.

"We have the superior product in relation to high-definition," Alchin said. "We'll maintain that product's superiority--we'll continue to add to that superiority over time."

Comcast, which is in 24 million homes, has run national commercials on premium programming with the "It's Comcastic!" tagline.

Alchin's comments came after a top Time Warner Cable executive said earlier in the week that cable operators have so far lost the perception battle with HD against satellite competitors. "Shame on us, because we haven't really done a good job of marketing [HDTV]," COO Landel Hobbs said at another investor event, according to Multichannel News.