It's taken nearly a month, but finally someone can see BBC America HD, as the channel has launched on Time Warner Cable in New York City, as part of a channel reshuffling that also brought HSN HD, Headline News HD, Outdoor Channel HD and Turner Classic Movies HD to subscribers. We'll have to check the schedule to see if Primeval, Dr. Who and Torchwood re-airs are on deck for the original launch slate, but in the meantime we'll just settle for catching Being Human at its best.

[Thanks, Eric]

NYC Metro FiOS subs will look on with interest as Verizon has petitioned the FCC to rule on whether or not Cablevision can continue to refuse offering its MSG channels in high definition to FiOS customers. Naturally Cablevision has responded calling the idea of a regulatory bailout for a phone company ten times its size "absurd," and claiming that it doesn't have to license its local HD programming to anyone. As Multichannel News explains, at issue is the "terrestrial loophole" which requires satellite delivered programming to be made available to competitors, but since the MSG channels aren't that rule does not apply. Still, it could be a while before we know if local Rangers, Knicks, Islanders, Devils and Sabers games are coming to FiOS as Verizon has asked for a decisions within five months, which, while not in time for the basketball season, should still be made well ahead of the Knicks ever being any good again.

Read - Verizon Petitions FCC to Rule on Cablevision's Refusal to Make MSG Channels Available in HD
Read - Verizon Files Program Access Complaint Against Cablevision

While our typical hotel coverage involves HDTVs and/or special programming, we'll make an exception for the Marantz/DALI audio setup getting dropped into the Empire Suite of Manhattan's Carlyle hotel. We won't make any guesses about what the rack rate is for the duplex suite in the swank hotel, but it's got to be cheaper than the audio system, which combines four MA-9S2 mono amps, an SC-7S2 preamp and SA-7S1 SACD deck from Marantz's Reference lineup with a pair of DALI MEGALINE III speakers. All told, that's about $47,000 of Marantz gear and another cool $60,000 for the speakers, all to deliver good old two-channel. Might we suggest staying in and ordering room service?

Like 3D, don't like glasses? Check out 750 7th Avenue at 50th Street in New York for the Snickers display where Inwindow Outdoor and Alioscopy have teamed up for the first 3D LCD ad on a storefront. The 42-inch panel uses an 8x recorded autosteroscopic (read: no glasses) 3D process to make the catchphrase jump off the wall at passers-by. The installation debuted May 6, and for the small cost of being marketed to vs. the now-shelved €18,000 Philips screen we once lusted after, it's a cheap way for us to get a peek at the future.

Once upon a time, a smattering of new HD channels in one major metropolitan area was a huge deal. Nowadays, it's almost expected that one area or another will experience some HD expansion each week. In order to keep things nice and tidy around here, we deliver high-def expansions, market expansions and anything else dealing with HD channel growth right here. If we missed an area that you're familiar with, drop us a line in comments so everyone can catch up. The more the merrier, we say!

Read - DIRECTV Delivers Local HD Programming to Customers in Harrisonburg, Va.
Read - Telemundo 47 Now Available In HD On Time Warner Cable New York
Read - Bright House Connects With YES 'National' In Orlando
Read - Time Warner adds HD movie channel, expands HD tier 33%
Read - Some Oceanic Time Warner customers can soon watch Smithsonian Networks (Hawaii)

No, folks -- this is no prank. Time Warner Cable really is throwing caution (and public opinion) to the wind and moving forward with its evil consumption-based internet billing. If you'll recall, we heard that the operator was trialing the method -- which imposes premium rates on big broadband users -- back in early 2008, but now it seems it's quietly hoping to roll it out into more major markets. Starting this month, TWC will start gathering information on its customers' internet use in Austin, TX, San Antonio, TX, Rochester, NY and Greensboro, NC; if all goes "well," consumption billing will hit those markets this summer or sooner. We'll point you to the read link if you're interested in just how outrageous these capped plans look (particularly for internet TV viewers), but we'd be remiss of our duties if we didn't share this gem of a quote from TWC CEO Glenn Britt: "We made a mistake early on by not defining our business based on the consumption dimension." Thanks for clarifying, Glenn-o.

[Thanks Kevin, image courtesy of Corbis]

It's still up in the air whether the New York Mets will have a solid 2009 season, but one thing is for certain: locals are stoked to see Citi Field open up on April 13th. Sharp has just pushed out a press release that gives baseball loving HD junkies even more reason to go check out a game in person, as we're told that over 800 AQUOS HDTVs will be littered about the new venue. There will also be a gigantic 108-inch Sharp LCD in Citi Field's main lobby, which ought to complement the 12,000 square-feet of Daktronics HD signage quite well. Man, stuff like this really makes us rethink the whole "stay home vs. see it live" debate. Full release is after the break.

Apparently Verizon has rid itself of the obsessive need to add Golf Channel HD to every area it serves, but in doing so, it also rid itself of the desire to do just about anything else FiOS TV-related. This week, we're seeing the fiber-based service spread to three new JPI apartment buildings in Washington, D.C.'s Capitol Riverfront neighborhood along with the opening of a FiOS Services store in Yonkers, New York. Outside of that, all's quiet on the FiOS TV front. 'Til next week, stay classy, planet Earth.

Read - Store in Yonkers
Read - Washington, D.C. expansion

RCN's Analog Crush initiative has been steamrolling for a few months now, and according to the cable carrier, the elimination of old school analog is all but complete in its major markets. By the end of January, RCN anticipates 100% digital penetration in the Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Washington DC, and Chicago markets, which will free up spectrum in order to get more HD (and SD, and international) programming onto the EPG. In fact, the company is hoping to surpass 100 high-definition channels by March, which makes us wonder why every other cable company out there isn't on this very same warpath.

[Image courtesy of TJooning]

Just in time for the NFL playoffs and March Madness, TV viewers in the Elmira-Corning, New York area will suddenly have lots more to cheer about when firing up the tube. ABC affiliate WENY-TV, alongside CBS affiliate WENY-DT2, will finally deliver programming to locals in high-definition "within the next week or two." The addition of ABC and CBS in HD to the area has been a long time coming, and it's actually being pushed back a few days as the network waits for a few last minute hardware acquisitions to arrive. HD channel additions are always welcome, but getting broadcast stations in high-def... now that's something special.

To no one's surprise, activity was extremely light on the FiOS TV expansion front this week. With Christmas Day falling on Thursday, Verizon only found time to announce that two more New York communities are one step closer to having access. The town of Carmel and the village of Hewlett Harbor have both granted video franchises to the carrier, which should mean that access will be available in short order. We also heard that Troutdale, Oregon approved a video franchise from the operator earlier this week, but outside of that, all's quiet on the FiOS TV front. Call it a hunch, but we don't expect next week to be much more eventful.

Admit it, south Manhattan -- you felt totally snubbed by Time Warner Cable's recent announcement that your brethren to the north would soon be getting a whole wheelbarrow full of new high-def content. Thankfully, the suits at TWC have realized that south-siders need clarity too, and it's planning to launch a significant amount of fresh HD channels in February. We can't even begin to cover the full list here, so we'll post it up word for word after the break. We know what you're thinking: February?! [Disclosure: Engadget is part of the Time Warner family]

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

TWC made good on a big promise to update the Big Apple's high-def lineup back in April, and now it's hitting the City up with a second wave that's about half as awesome. Reportedly, the carrier has snuck in over a dozen HD channels to the Northern Manhattan system, while a tipster in Brooklyn found that Crime and Investigation HD, TV One HD, G4HD, CNBC HD, USA HD, SciFi HD , Bravo HD, E! HD and QVC HD were all available as of this weekend. At the rate cable carrier's are adding HD channels this holiday season, don't be surprised to get a NYC-sized bundle yourself. [Disclosure: Engadget is part of the Time Warner family

[Thanks, John]

There doesn't appear to be a set time line in place, but TV One is expected to launch an HD simulcast of its SD network soon on several Comcast / Time Warner Cable systems. The channel, which is a self-proclaimed "entertainment television network for African Americans," will first hit TWC's NYC region and Comcast systems in Boston, Chicago, Portland, OR and Seattle. We're told that more regions should find the HD iteration of the channel beginning in early January 2009, and at least initially, some 20% of the content will be shot and aired in high-def; if all goes well, that figure should rise to 40% by 2010.

We know the holidays are just around the bend, but the installers at Verizon aren't taking an early leave. This week, more Southern California homes and businesses were gifted with FiOS TV, particularly in areas of Los Angeles, Riverside, San Bernardino and Ventura counties. Over on the right coast, residents in Blasdell, Kenmore and Lackawanna (New York) are joining the FiOS TV crowd, while prospective buyers in Staten Island now have a retail outlet to visit. Moving on, locals in Chester, Pennsylvania should see the service launch later this month, while subscribers in Portland, Oregon now have access to 102 HD channels. Finally, the Washington, D.C. council has unanimously approved, with one abstention, legislation authorizing Verizon to offer its fiber-based programming service to District residents. Somehow, we get the idea this won't get through without a fight from one particularly angry cable carrier. Like we said, busy week.

Read - California expansion
Read - New York expansion
Read - Staten Island store
Read - Pennsylvania expansion
Read - Portland, Oregon HD channel expansion
Read - Washington, D.C. expansion