Philadelphia – Gloomy weather didn’t dim the smiles of the two perfectly coifed TV anchors as they bantered into their microphone headsets.
“The skies may be gray, but spirits are sunny and bright. Good morning. I’m Janelle Wolfe, and thanks for tuning in,” one said with practiced, professional poise. “It’s going to be a long parade. I hope you have a bowl of popcorn or some beverages handy, because, folks, we’re going to be here awhile.”
Macy’s Thanksgiving Parade? Not even close. It’s the 2006 bicentennial parade of Pottsville, Pa. The town’s population: about 15,000.
Here’s another surprise: The show wasn’t produced by the local TV station but taped and edited by Comcast Corp. It aired on the cable company’s statewide video-on-demand service, which is a bank of stored movies, television shows and other content that its digital TV customers can access at any time.
Comcast, based in Philadelphia and the largest provider of cable services in Colorado, and other cable operators such as Time Warner Cable, Cablevision Systems Corp. and Cox Communications Inc., are quietly expanding their local news coverage of the communities they serve. It’s an offering satellite rivals can’t match and a chance to tap into the demand for everything local.
While the quality of the shows varies from ESPN sophistication to simple footage of cheerleading, they’re generally slicker and more diverse than those seen on public-access channels produced by the community.
Many local on-demand shows are produced by the cable companies, using their own video crews and on-air anchors.
