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Academy graduations to be available on cable

Mid-Atlantic customers of Comcast Digital Cable can watch Saturday’s West Point commencement live at no charge — or catch free replays of that and the other service academies’ graduation ceremonies through June 30.

The Pentagon Channel broadcasts of the events will be available to Comcast Digital Cable customers in New Jersey, Delaware, southeast and central Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia and Washington, D.C., through Comcast’s Local Video On Demand service.

The broadcast of Saturday’s West Point commencement, with featured speaker Army Secretary Pete Geren, will begin at 10 a.m. Eastern time. If rain forces the event inside, the live broadcast will begin at noon, according to the Pentagon Channel.

Comcast will make available on-demand replays of all the graduation ceremonies no later than four days after the events. That means viewers can now watch replays of the May 23 Naval Academy graduation, where Joint Chiefs Chairman Adm. Mike Mullen was the featured speaker, and of the May 28 Air Force Academy commencement, at which President Bush spoke. The West Point commencement will be available by June 3, Comcast said.

Comcast customers can access “Graduations ON DEMAND” by tuning to Channel 1 on their digital cable lineup or pressing the ON DEMAND button on their remote control, then clicking on the “Get Local” category followed by the “Academy Graduations” folder. Viewers can watch at any time, day or night, and will be able to fast-forward, rewind and pause the recorded broadcasts, according to Comcast.

The West Point graduation can also be viewed live on the Pentagon Channel for those whose cable providers carry the station, or via a live stream at the Pentagon Channel’s Web site.

The Comcast broadcast arrangement is for this year only and only for Mid-Atlantic Comcast customers, according to the Pentagon Channel’s Michael Winneker. “We’d love to have it on all the Comcast system,” he said, adding that he hopes customer demand will drive an expanded version in the future.