Verizon and Comcast have had an ongoing war of words when it comes to HDTV service, Comcast last year attacking the telco for over-inflating their HD channel count claims. According to a new Verizon blog post they've filed a false advertising complaint against Comcast for a new suite of ads that have apparently irked the telco. Verizon highlights the fact that Comcast isn't in much of a position to talk, given the cable company offers 47 HD Channels to Verizon's 117 -- in Comcast's hometown of Philadelphia. Verizon also raises the pesky fact that Comcast remains at the bottom of the barrel in most consumer satisfaction rankings -- though they have shown improvement in recent months.

Cablevision nudged us this morning to note that the carrier is ramping up HD channel availability. According to Cablevision spokesman Jim Maiella, the company this week is announcing 30 new free HD channels in NYC, and 8 new HD channels across the company's entire service area. Maiella also tells us the carrier should have "more than 100 HD channels available everywhere by June." We've obtained a list (pdf) of all the new channels being added for those interested. Cablevision is engaged in heavy competition with Verizon FiOS, and in addition to ramping up HD channel availability, the carrier is spending $300 million to offer free Wi-Fi to users -- and upgrade to the DOCSIS 3.0. Though Cablevision is not commenting, we believe 100Mbps tiers are currently in testing.

AT&T reached out to us to note that the carrier is now officially offering 100 HD channels in all of the markets where their U-Verse VDSL-based IPTV service is available. "That’s more HD than the local cable competitors in every U-verse TV market," spokesman Seth Bloom tells us. While the 100 channel count will likely be irrelevant a year from now, it's an important marketing metric in telcoTV's push to convert existing cable TV customers -- many of whom aren't thrilled with the limited number of options (for example, Comcast offers as few as 22 HD channels in some markets). The new channels are being added to existing tiers, without a price change (see full release for the particulars).

DirecTV continues its reign as the king of high-definition channel counts, though Verizon's FiOSTV service keeping pace with the satellite operator, according to new analysis by market research provider Pike & Fischer. According to the firm's press release, as of January DirecTV was offering as many as 104 channels in HD -- just one more than Verizon. Meanwhile Comcast, which offers as few as 22 HD channels in some markets, comes in last in the study -- as the company is still working to free up enough capacity to catch up with industry HD leaders. That hasn't stopped Comcast from criticizing Verizon's HD lineup lately. Of course by this time next year, HD channel counts should be a meaningless metric, with carriers competing on image quality (and someday, maybe, price).

The argument over whether to delay the digital TV transition from February 17 to June 12 stumbled last week, when the idea failed to get the required two-thirds majority vote in the House. The House of Representatives spent much of today debating legislation that would delay the digital TV transition from February 17 to June 12, and today ultimately approved the delay, 264-158. Many see the delay as unnecessary, given the people who ignored a year's worth of warnings will probably be equally unprepared on June 12. The hope is that the delay will give the government time to fix a coupon program that offers two free $40 coupons for digital converters to each American family. Budgetary shortfalls in the program resulted in a waiting list for applicants.