EveryJoe » DirecTV

DirecTV to Dish Network: Still Better Than You

Zach Flauaus — Sun, 23 Mar 2008 01:33:55 +0000

With DirecTV’s DirecTV 11 satellite now up in orbit around the planet and Dish Network’s bird… Well, in a state of shock, it’s time for a little “Haha!” from DirecTV. DirecTV’s new satellite will allow them to have up to 150 nationwide HD channels and also allow more local channels provided in HD. Currently, DirecTV has 92 national channels and 77 cities broadcasting HD local channels, while Dish Network only has 70 national HD channels and 34 HD local networks.

“We are well ahead of them now on both counts — national and local HD — and with the successful launch of our new HD satellite Wednesday, will be in more than 100 markets by year end.”

-Robert Mercer, DirecTV Spokesman.

Dish Network is still planning on having 100 national HD channels and also 100 local markets broadcasting in HD by the end of the year. I personally hope they reach their goal so there is more competition, because we can’t have too much competition when it comes to television. Except for maybe those darn format wars that are now over…

Multichannel

Post from: EveryJoe

DirecTV to Dish Network: Still Better Than You

DirecTV Adds PPV Restrictions on DVRs

Zach Flauaus — Fri, 21 Mar 2008 04:26:35 +0000

So, while DirecTV was doing good in the eyes of some by launching another satellite successfully to add channels, they have also made an adjustment in their methods of how customers watch pay-per-view on their DVRs, one that I believe is for the worse. While DirecTV DVR owners in the past have been able to purchase a movie on PPV and then record it on their DVRs for future viewing (however long you chose, I believe), starting April 15, you will only have 24 hours to watch your movie.

This is a similar step as to what Apple has done with movie rentals on the Apple TV: pay $2.99-$4.99, watch for 24 hours, but Apple one-ups DirecTV by giving you 30 days to watch the movie while DirecTV is basically forcing you to watch the movie right then and there, something that subscribers with non-DVR receivers have had to deal with since the beginning.

I wish DirecTV wouldn’t have done this. It’s just one of those things that show how greedy Corporate America is anymore, by squeezing every last nickel and dime out of you. Even worse, they aren’t lowering the price of the rentals to maybe entice you to purchase the PPV title more than once. Once the very dim upside, any titles purchased before April 15 will not be affected.

Ars Technica

DirecTV Press Release

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DirecTV Adds PPV Restrictions on DVRs

DirecTV 11 Launched, Hooray!

Zach Flauaus — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 19:07:05 +0000

Well, after a long hiatus due to illness on my end (and no, it’s not SxSARS), we are back and going to be blogging again. I am sorry for the delays, but I have been in no shape to do anything productive. Anyways, onto more happy news.

DirecTV’s new satellite, DirecTV 11, has successfully launched and is heading to orbit the Earth in the Northern Hemisphere at 99.2W longitude. The new satellite will allow DirecTV to add more HD capacity for more channels, which I think we can all use, because you can never have too much HD.

DIRECTV 11 is one of three recent Boeing 702-model spacecraft built for DIRECTV and is among the largest and most powerful Ka-band satellites built to date. The on-board technology of this direct-to-home satellite will enable DIRECTV to continue to expand its industry-leading lineup of quality high-definition television (HDTV) programming.

I can say DirecTV seems to be trying to make up for their mistake of last year, not reaching 100 channels (That’s right, I’m not letting them live that one down). We are basically waiting for confirmation from the higher-ups that the signal is coming from the satellite, which will lead to a few weeks of waiting for it to go online. Hooray!

DSLReports

Sea Launch

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DirecTV 11 Launched, Hooray!

DirecTV Now Majority Owned by John Malone

Zach Flauaus — Sun, 02 Mar 2008 01:50:09 +0000

A while back, talk of John Malone and his company, Liberty Media, started to grow as they were going to purchase the majority stock of DirecTV from its previous owner, Rupert Murdoch and News Corp. Well, the day has finally come and Malone can finally roll around in all the air that is freed up by his $12 billion purchase of 41% of DirecTV. His first order of business? Making sure that the company’s main goal is video, which, conveniently, is the main business of DirecTV.

What does this mean for you, the people on the other end of the spectrum watching the content? Well, hopefully we’ll see more HD channels be launched (maybe actually hitting that 100 channel goal?). Another goal Liberty Media has said is that they want to go full blown with video-on-demand and have movies “pushed” to a customer’s DVR for instant playback which psuedo-VOD, but we’ll take what we can get.

[MultiChannel]

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DirecTV Now Majority Owned by John Malone

DirecTV Making Rural Folks Happy, Producing ATSC Box

Zach Flauaus — Sun, 03 Feb 2008 02:36:08 +0000

Live in a rural area where DirecTV doesn’t provide your local channels over satellite, yet you can get them over the air? DirecTV has now decided to do something about it. The satellite mega-company is now making ATSC boxes to go with their current satellite boxes, which will be available by the end of March. Granted, ATSC doesn’t always mean HD signal (it just means a digital signal), but it would be quite stupid on DirecTV’s part if they didn’t make them HD-capable. The cost of the box is expected to be around $50, which is “15% less than the company’s actual cost for the tuner.” DirecTV making nice? Well, it’s a small case, but I like where this is going.

MultiChannel

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DirecTV, ATSC

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DirecTV Making Rural Folks Happy, Producing ATSC Box

DirecTV Raises Prices Next Month

Zach Flauaus — Fri, 18 Jan 2008 04:17:50 +0000

Your DirecTV service that you love (even though they missed their target of 100 HD channels by the end of 2007) and you wouldn’t get rid of for anything? Well, it’s going up in prices, and it’s affecting most everybody. Here’s a breakdown of the price increases from Satelliteguys.us:

Choice $52.99 (up $3.00)

Choice xtra $57.99 (up $3.00)

Plus DVR $62.99 (up $3.00)

Plus HD DVR $72.99 (up $3.00)

Premier 104.99 (up $5.00)

HBO $14 (up $1.00)

So are we paying more for their screw-ups and a sign of them bringing new channels (even though they already increased the price of the HD pack earlier), or perhaps just wanting to be like cable and increase prices along with everything else in the industry? I personally think it’s the latter, that they’re trying to catch up with the industry, which personally doesn’t make sense, but most of the time Corporate America doesn’t make sense. New prices go into affect 2/27/08 and will affect all except those with promotions.

Satelliteguys.us

Broadband Reports

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DirecTV, Total Choice, HD

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DirecTV Raises Prices Next Month

Tennis HD Launches on DirecTV

Zach Flauaus — Tue, 01 Jan 2008 03:35:44 +0000

Oh, DirecTV, it’s quite a love-hate relationship anymore, isn’t it? What with announcing 100 HD channels by the end of the year, but still coming up short (which will be an essay in itself), yet providing (most) of the necessary HD channels, we really don’t know what to do with ourselves. Well, DirecTV has launch the Tennis Channel in HD for fans of the sport who miss out on their sport being in HD. All documentaries, series, and specials will be in HD, as well as a number of tennis events.

Broadcasting & Cable

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Tennis HD Launches on DirecTV

It’s December 28th, Do You Know Where Your HD Channels Are?

Zach Flauaus — Fri, 28 Dec 2007 18:50:09 +0000

So as we are just 3 days from the end of the year as of 12/28/07, DirecTV is looking like they’ll be coming up short on their promise of 100 new HD channels by the end of 2007. While 70 new HD channels isn’t bad at all, it’s still a bad move on DirecTV’s part because they have been promoting this since the beginning of the year, saying they’ll have this done and our new satellites will have more capacity to bring these channels to us. They’ve got a short amount of time and I can actually see them going, “Well, we launched the other 30 channels at 11:59PM on New Year’s Eve,” which I think is just cheap, but I guess that would be their way of saying we launched all 100 HD channels.

So what do you think? Will DirecTV live up to their promise of 100 new HD Channels by the end of the year?

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DirecTV

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It’s December 28th, Do You Know Where Your HD Channels Are?

ReplayTV Bought by DirecTV

Zach Flauaus — Fri, 14 Dec 2007 04:57:10 +0000

With ReplayTV units fading away from our memories and being replaced by TiVos, Motorolas, and other DVRs, they’ve come out of the woodwork to announce that they’ve been bought by DirecTV. D&M Holdings, a Japan-based holding company, has said that it has sold the ReplayTV business to DirecTV for “an undisclosed sum.” Random fact thrown in the Reuters report, D&M also bought Rio in 2003 for $36 million, and then proceeded to sell it two years later. As of now, ReplayTV does not make physical hardware DVR boxes as in the past, but do provide TV recording software that hasn’t gotten much talk at all. Whether DirecTV will use the ReplayTV resources to their whim of updating their DVRs with a new interface, or maybe scrap their current DVR lineup and replace them with Replay units is yet to be seen. This will be something to keep an eye on for sure.

Yahoo! (Malaysia) News

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DirecTV, ReplayTV

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ReplayTV Bought by DirecTV

DirecTV Starship to Broadcast NFL Network

Zach Flauaus — Fri, 14 Dec 2007 04:37:28 +0000

No, this isn’t something from Star Wars, although it does sound an awful lot like it. Tampa, Orlando, and St. Petersburg, Florida residents who subscribe to Comcast, Bright House, or Time Warner Cable may have been unable to watch games broadcasted on the NFL Network due to having the channel on a premium package, blacking out the games, or just simply not carrying the channel on their network. Well, for those who live in these affected neighborhoods, you’ll now be able to look to the sky and watch the games. DirecTV, in a issued statement, said that their DirecTV HD Starship will be up in the air starting Thursday (tonight as of this writing) and will broadcast the games over their 70′x30′ monitor. The blimp is 178 feet long and can stay in the air for six hours if needed. DirecTV is jumping on this opportunity to show how “superior” their digital signal is and to convince people to switch over. Well, I will give them props for doing it in quite a style.

Yahoo! Finance

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DirecTV, NFL Network

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DirecTV Starship to Broadcast NFL Network