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All I can say is, it’s about time. DirecTV and Comcast have finally reconciled one of their differences, finally allowing the Versus network to air once again on DirecTV. The feed will began today, maybe even in time to catch the NHL hockey game. While the terms of the deal weren’t disclosed, to me it doesn’t really matter. After all the U.S. versus Canada post-Olympics hype, viewers were clamoring for more hockey. But with only one nationally televised game each week on NBC, you were relegated to watch your local team, if you were fortunate to live near one of the the 30 NHL teams.
Satellite TV giant DirecTV will allow customers access to the Philip Seymour Hoffman film Pirate Radio more than 30 days before the film’s DVD release by Universal.
Pirate Radio was released in 1080p high definition at $5.99 or standard definition for $4.99 via its video-on-demand service beginning yesterday.
“DirecTV Cinema strives to deliver the highest-quality movie experience by offering unique content that is above-and-beyond what consumers find on the usual pay-per-view platform,” said Sarah Lyons, vice president of Marketing for DirecTV. “DirecTV is thrilled to continue raising the bar with Pirate Radio, by offering it to our customers more than a month before the film’s DVD release. We will continue to deliver an unmatched in-home movie experience that can only be found on DirecTV.”
There are many outstanding features that DirecTV has included in with its Plus HD DVR. Each of these helps to make this one of the most appealing units on the market today. You will get two tuners that will allow you to access HD and SD programming.
With the press of a button you can get the scores to all major sports games without ever leaving the channel you are on. You will also enjoy other interactive features offered through DirecTV Active. You can view everything from your horoscope to the weather and even check lottery results.
In an increasingly difficult market, satellite television provider DirecTV is finding that it is being challenged by the ever growing costs of programming.
But who isn’t, right?
The subject of a dispute between Cablevision and ABC came up recently at the Credit Suisse Global Media & Communications Convergence Conference which was held in Palm Beach, Florida. When questioned about the dispute senior VP of Financial Planning Jon Rubin stated that because of higher fees being expected by programming providers the company was having to take a long hard look at dropping some of those channels and/or changing channel lineups.
Satellite TV provider DirecTV is getting all hot and bothered for the March 20 midnight release of The Twilight Saga: New Moon. The industry leader will offer special bonus material through its video-on-demand service to coincide with the release of the Robert Pattinson, Kristen Stewart film, which is new territory for the company. Normally, cable and satellite television providers never offer bonus material alongside a film because, well, it’s normally lame and people who order pay-per-view movies are usually not interested in such fare. That’s not the case for the hotly anticipated release of the Twilight sequel.
Where there’s Twilight, there’s cold hard cash.
California-based U.S. satellite TV giant DirecTV, sold $3 billion of 5-, 10- and 30-year notes, according to a report from Bloomberg earlier this week.
DirecTV offered $1.2 billion of 3.55 percent five-year notes which yield 120 basis points more than similar-maturity Treasuries, $1.3 billion of 5.2 percent 10-year debt that pays 150 basis points more than benchmarks, and $500 million of 6.35 percent 30-year obligations at a 167 basis-point spread according to Bloomberg.
For those interested, a basis point is 0.01 percentage point.
This is the first time DirecTV has issued corporate bonds says Bloomberg. The company may use some of the proceeds for a $3.5 billion share buyback aimed by the end of the year.
Perhaps one of the most sought after technologies available to television viewers today has also become one of the most contentious pieces as well. DVR technology was developed by a small company named TiVo back in 1999. When it was first attempting to market its new design TiVo took a prototype to Dish Network.
The story goes that Dish actually kept the prototype and integrated that technology into a DVR system of its own. This technology which allows television users to both store and retrieve videos in a digital format has since become wildly popular. It has become so popular in fact that many people equate the name of the company, TiVo, with the equipment itself. People will ask if another is going to “TiVo” a show.
There is no question as to the toll that the direct rivalry between DirecTV and its nemesis Dish Network is continuing to take on the company’s stocks. With discounts of up to 50% on certain packages the returns continue to take hit after hit. Much of the problem seems to be coming, not only from the stiff competition DirecTV faces from Dish, but also from the growing churn rate that the company faces.
A company’s churn rate is the rate at which the company loses relatively new subscribers. Many different factors including a poor economy and consumer reluctance at paying higher subscription fees are both playing into the increase in the churn rate that DirecTV is currently experiencing.
In a recent chat with investors, new DirecTV CEO Michael White, a former Pepsi executive who joined the company on Jan 1., laid out his vision for the satellite leader after a fourth quarter loss after absorbing certain entertainment assets spun off by Liberty Media Corp.
White was asked if he was looking at the business in terms of balancing revenue growth or free cash flow and earnings.
“I’m frankly more interested in how we create passionate loyalty out of our consumers for life, than necessarily chasing lower quality (subscribers),” says White. “We recognize the industry has gotten a bit more competitive in the last six months and we are fine-tuning our own strategies accordingly.”
Many of the winners at Saturday’s Screen Actors Guild Awards seemed very familiar. That’s probably because most of them won a Golden Globe just one week earlier.
For starters, Jeff Bridges won the Screen Actors Guild award for best actor for his role as an aging musician in Crazy Heart while Sandra Bullock won the SAG award for best actress for her portrayal of the real-life adoptive mother of a young man who goes on to become an NFL player in The Blind Side. And you guessed it, they both won the best actor and actress honors at the Golden Globes for just a week earlier.
