Comcast customers in Ross and Castle Shannon will have to wait a little longer to get more HD channels and for channel bumps from standard cable to digital tiers that other Comcast customers experienced last month.

The changes, which were to take place Tuesday, have been temporarily delayed, according to Comcast spokeswoman Jody Doherty. Comcast offered an introductory low price for customers choosing to upgrade to digital cable last month, and that offer won't expire until the end of August. Doherty said the same offer will be made to customers in Ross and Castle Shannon, and Comcast doesn't want to risk running out of digital cable boxes.

"Customer reaction was unbelievable," she said. "Customer demand was stronger than our most aggressive projections. As a result, before implementing these moves we need to make sure we're prepared with an ample supply of boxes to make it as smooth a transition as possible."

Doherty said no specific date for the transition in these communities has been set. In the meantime, four new HD channels will launch next week: AMC (Channel 227), Animal Planet (Channel 224), TLC (Channel 222) and WPCW (Channel 216) with 12 more to follow at a later date. (Rob Owen, Post-Gazette TV editor)

An actors group seeking to unseat the leadership of the Screen Actors Guild over its handling of contract talks with studios has revealed a group of A-list backers that includes Tom Hanks and Sally Field.

The group, United for Strength, made its announcement Wednesday. It's trying to wrest control of SAG's 71-member national board from a coalition called Membership First, which has seen talks with studios come to a standstill.

About a third of the seats are up for re-election. Votes are due Sept. 18.

Among others cited as backers by Unite for Strength are Alec Baldwin, Sarah Michelle Gellar and Ron Perlman.

SAG has not agreed to the studio's final contract offer and has been working under terms of the old deal since July 1.

The dispute centers on payment and other issues involving made-for-Internet productions. (Associated Press)

About half of the people who are using mobile phones to pull down video or information about the Olympics have been trying out that technology for the first time, NBC said on Wednesday.

NBC Universal, a unit of General Electric Co., has been using the Olympics as something of a research lab to track the adoption of new media technology. Since the opening ceremony last Friday, the company has made content available online, through video on demand and via cell phones along with traditional TV.

The number of people requesting Olympic content over their phones is still relatively small -- 494,506 on Sunday and 476,062 on Monday -- but NBC executives say they're stunned at how many of those never used the phones for this purpose before.

"To some extent, the Olympics are beginning to influence how people use new technology," said Alan Wurtzel, research president for NBC Universal.

By far, however, television is still the preferred format. Of the estimated 107 million people to experience at least a few minutes of the Olympics on Sunday, 95 percent watched it on TV, NBC said. NBC's prime-time ratings are running well ahead of the Athens games in 2004. Through five days, the average prime-time viewership for NBC is 31.3 million, the network said.

Americans downloaded some 1.7 million video streams of Monday's stunning swimming relay where the American team came from behind to beat France and keep Michael Phelps' gold medal streak alive. An estimated 1.5 million video streams were e-mailed from one person to another, Wurtzel said.

NBC Universal worried in past Olympics years that its decision to air much of the events on cable outlets like CNBC, MSNBC and USA would siphon interest from prime-time, which is still where the network earns the bulk of its advertising revenue.

But the opposite proved to be true and, this year, the same thing has happened with the digital content, said Gary Zenkel, president of NBC Olympics. (David Bauder, AP)