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Mediacom Communications has included two new high-definition and two standard definition channels to Dubuque, Iowa area subscribers. Mediacom has added following HD channels to its HD Family Cable subscribers:

FOX News HD – channel 756 and

Lifetime HD – channel 763

Mediacom Communications has also added following two digital Iowa Public stations to the line-up.

Learns – channel 118 and

World – channel 119

Kathy McMullen, Mediacom’s senior manager for area operations said “Mediacom customers in northeast Iowa have seen their HD Family Cable lineups expand, and I’m confident that more high-def programming is coming in the months ahead.”

Univision Communications has entered a multi-year carriage deal with Mediacom Communications to focus on serving small cities and many small towns in the country. Univision already has carriage deal with DirecTV, AT&T, Insight and Cox Communciations. Further, Univision has signed deal with more than 100 distributors across the country, including Cable ONE and NPG Cable in past six months.

The agreements will allow operators to distribute Univision’s broadcast networks, Univision and TeleFutura, and cable network, Galavision, and in certain markets, carriage of stations owned and operated by Univision. This also includes carriage of affiliated stations owned and operated by Entravision Communications Corporation and Equity Media Holdings Corporation.

Verizon Communications has announced that six new high-definition channels will be launched to its FiOS TV subscribers before the end of June. Verizon will be adding following HD channels of Viacom’s MTV Networks:

CMT HD

Spike TV HD and

VH1 HD

Verizon is leading the race with 130 HD channels that’s more HD channels offered by DirecTV or Dish Network.

Outdoor Channel has revealed its third quarter programming schedule starting June 29th. America’s leader in outdoor TV has lined up many premium programming that includes “Beretta’s Wild & Raw,” “Benelli Presents Duck Commander,” “Field & Stream Outdoor Icons” and “The Best Defense: Survival,” and also returning programs like “Realtree Road Trips, ” “Scouting for Adventure” and “Ultimate Match Fishing.”

Tom Hornish, COO, Outdoor Channel said “We’ve consistently packed our schedule with powerful content that truly captures the excitement of authentic hunting, fishing, shooting and adventure, giving our loyal viewer base more of what they have come to enjoy from Outdoor Channel, our third quarter schedule illustrates our commitment to producing the highest quality shows in the genre.”

Outdoor Channel programming schedules are as follows for the third quarter:

AVP Pro Beach Volleyball has entered an agreement with Universal Sports and Comcast regional sports network to broadcast men’s and women’s beach volleyball matches for the 2009 season. Universal Sports will broadcast the semi-finals live for events in Coney Island, Hermosa Beach and the Cup Championship in Chicago as a pre-cursor to the finals airing on NBC Sports.

The sports website, UniversalSports.com will also bring live stream of each semi-final event on its website and offer re-airs of the finals after they are shown on NBC Sports.

Jason Hodell, CEO, AVP Pro Beach Volleyball said “Universal Sports and Comcast’s regional sports networks extend our reach to the American public and our fans, we’re very pleased to be partnering with them to ensure viewers catch as much tour action as possible.”

Sinclair Broadcasting Group has announced that it has reached an agreement with Dish Network. Sinclair has extended its agreement and this allows the sat caster to carry Sinclair’s broadcasting networks and also video-on-demand content.

Sinclair carries major broadcast networks such as ABC, CBS, CW, FOX and MNT in as many as in thirty-five markets. Sinclair has recently signed retransmission Deal With DirecTV.

International Soccer Star (iSoccerStar) is to hold open soccer tryouts in Orange County, California the weekends of June 20th and 21st, 2009. iSoccerStar will start at 9:00 a.m.; with check in beginning at 8:00 a.m. Tryouts are open to players ages 16 and above. Similar to MLS combines, players will be evaluated and selected for the iSoccerStar team.

The final 22 selected players will train for four weeks starting June 22nd to July 17th in Orange County. The team will then depart for Croatia July 19th through August 2nd, playing 5 games against professional Croatian first division and second division teams.

Esad Pepic, president of iSoccerStar said “The response from college soccer coaches and the soccer community has been very positive, our first season demonstrated that American players desperately want to play in Europe but the majority of them don’t have anyway to showcase themselves. We are here to change that.”

Teledifusao de Macau (TDM) is planning to launch five digital channels and a satellite channel. These new channels will deliver programming contents targeting Portuguese-speaking people. TDM started its broadcast way back in 1981, plans to bring new satellite channel with contents provided by other TV stations from China and Portuguese-speaking countries.

Manuel Goncalves, CEO of Teledifusao de Macau said “Macau as a platform to the cooperation between China and the Portuguese Language Countries in the Television domain, TDM has been stable enough to allow a new look at the future”.

Dish Network has launched 30 high-definition channels in Alaska on May 14. The sat caster is offering more than 65 HD channels in Hawaii. Dish Network subscribers in Hawaii can now include Bronze, Silver or Gold HD to their Classic programming packages and new subscribers signing up for DISH Network’s Classic Bronze, Silver or Gold package can include Bronze, Silver or Gold HD to receive most of the new HD channels.

Dave Shull, senior vice president of Programming for DISH Network said “”As the leader in HD programming, we want to reach everyone who wants DISH Network’s best HD quality and value, so we are excited to expand our offer with even more of the industry’s best HD for the Hawaiian market.”

Comcast has announced that it will deliver two new high-definition channels in Denver and make few changes to its programming line-up. Following two HD channels will be added to Comcast Denver Digital Classic package subscribers:

ION HD – Channel 659 and

FX HD – Channel 691

FX HD will be included on May 31 and ION HD on June 9, 2009.

Comcast will move Spike TV from Channel 44 to Channel 70, Oxygen from Channel 70 to channels 44 and 171 and TruTV from Channel 71 to channels 71 and 163. Mun2 on channel 603 will also be available on channel 479.