Directv

DirecTV looking up after 3Q

Dan O'Shea — Sun, 09 Nov 2008 22:54:35 -0500

Satellite TV company DirecTV, which recently re-captured a long-term resake partnership with AT&T and continues to have strong affiliations with large telcos, posted a 14 percent increase in profit to $363 million, and a 15 percent increase in revenue to $4.98 billion. The company added only 156,000 net video subscribers in the quarter, which was a slip of 35% from same quarter last year, but that drop was attributed in part to the fact that AT&T earlier this year dropped DirecTV as a resale partner, a few months before announcing a new commitment with DirecTV to begin early next year.

It has never been clear to us how long telcos will continue to rely on satellite TV partnerships, but with telcos committed to DirecTV, and more customers potentially ready to lock into money-saving triple play service bundles that include the service, things are looking up for at least one satellite TV player. DirecTV now has about 17.3 million customers nationally.

For more:
- The Wall Street Journal has this report

Qwest finally phasing out Choice TV

Dan O'Shea — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 11:05:02 -0400

The other shoe finally dropped for Qwest Communications' Choice TV, the DSL-based TV service that the telco (then U S West) launched 10 years ago in Arizona. Qwest said it is phasing out the service and attempting to migrate customers to its DirecTV partner. With what has happened to Qwest in the years since, it is easy to forget that prior to the U S West-Qwest merger, U S West helped pioneer the concept of telco as video provider.

About 42,000 Qwest customers in portions of Arizona subscribe to Choice TV, and while the service has been offered in a small portion of Colorado as well, the telco has never further pursued the idea, and the future of the service has been in doubt for some time. Instead of expanding it, Qwest, similar to other former RBOCs, forged a satellite TV partnership to gain quicker, less expensive access to the TV market, and to support bundled service plans. Qwest now has more than 700,000 video customers through its relationship with DirecTV, and gained more than 32,000 of them during the second quarter of this year.

The Choice TV phase-out could take until the end of 2009, according to Arizona's East Valley Tribune. In addition to the successful DirecTV partnership, Qwest within the last year has taken a strong stance against establishing its own IPTV network and service capabilities. Choice TV doesn't have video-on-demand and other capabilities associated with IPTV or modern satellite TV, and instead of investing in its own branded TV service, the telco has opted to fund a less expensive, targeted fiber-to-the-node network upgrade with the purpose of providing customers with more bandwidth for them to use in any way they choose.

For more:
- read this story at Arizona's East Valley Tribune

AT&T chooses DirecTV over Dish

Dan O'Shea — Sun, 28 Sep 2008 20:16:46 -0400

AT&T, perhaps looking to head off speculation about its satellite TV plans after last week's extension of its resale partnership with Dish Network, has announced that DirecTV will be its sole satellite partner starting in February 2009. It may seem like a surprising choice, given that AT&T just extended the Dish arrangement and previously had stopped re-selling DirecTV in the former BellSouth region, but the carrier had maintained a stance all along that it was evaluating its options.

With the ongoing success of IPTV, it is not clear how much longer a satellite TV partnership will be important to the telco. It sells bundles that include satellite TV and has way more satellite TV customers (2.1 million) than IPTV customers (549,000, as of the second quarter), but IPTV has been closing the gap.

Meanwhile, as cable TV and telco TV players knock heads, and DirecTV benefits from ongoing partnerships with the big telcos, you have to wonder what will come of Dish Network. The company's parent, EchoStar, last year was rumored to be close to getting acquired by AT&T, and now Dish has no major U.S. telco partners at all.

For more:
- read this story at The Wall Street Journal

AT&T to resell Dish a little longer

Dan O'Shea — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 09:37:54 -0400

AT&T had confirmed earlier this summer that its reseller arrangement with satellite TV firm Dish Network would end at the end of this year, but now the companies have agreed to extend their partnership through Jan. 31, 2009.

AT&T previously had ended a resale deal with DirecTV, seemingly in favor of selling Dish service. However, when AT&T and Dish acknowledged their resale deal would end this year, industry observers were left to wonder if that meant that AT&T was done with satellite TV, or if it would allow both Dish and DirecTV a shot at becoming its long-term partner. AT&T has said it is still trying to decide who to partner with next year. The telco now has more than 2.2 million satellite TV customers, but growth in that area has sharply dropped in recent months.

However, AT&T still has more satellite TV customers than IPTV customers. The U-verse TV service had gathered 549,000 subscribers at last count following the second quarter of 2008.

For more:
- read this story at Multichannel News

Verizon, Dish lead HD channel charge

Dan O'Shea — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 23:37:30 -0400

TV providers continue to try to out-do one another in the area of high-definition channel line-ups, and Multichannel News reports that Dish Network and Verizon Communications are leading the way. Both service providers are targeting 150 HD channels by the end of this year. Dish last month launched a new satellite giving its capacity to reach 150 channels, and it recently launched its TurboHD service. DirecTV also is moving to 130 HD channels later this month.

For more:
- ready this story at Multichannel News

Related articles:
HDTV programming can strain network bandwidth. HDTV report
HDTV rollouts by small telco were affected by a software issue. HDTV report

AT&T notifies Dish partnership to end

Dan O'Shea — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 23:17:06 -0400

Satellite TV player Dish Network reported in an SEC filing Tuesday that AT&T had informed Dish that it is ending the companies resale partnership effective Dec. 31. AT&T has not said much at all about why it is terminating the partnership, only that it is fulfilling contract requirements by providing Dish with six months notice. Still, the move is not too much of a surprise, considering that AT&T recently asked Dish to buy back $500 million of Dish debt the telco owned. Also, while AT&T ended a resale relationship with DirecTV earlier this year--leaving Dish as AT&T's exclusive satellite partner--it was well known that AT&T still was evaluating its overall need for satellite as it continues to have solid success with IPTV.

AT&T's silence on the matter could mean it is still sizing up whether or not it will need a satellite partner in the future. At one point some months ago, there were rumors circulating that AT&T could even acquire Dish Network.

For more:
see this story at Multichannel News

Related articles:
AT&T's debt request last week raised questions about the Dish relationship AT&T report
Dish Network last month said it would get more aggressive Dish Network report

DirecTV makes on-demand service available nationwide

Dan O'Shea — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 22:29:45 -0400

Satellite TV player DirecTV announced that its on-demand TV service is now available to customers nationwide who have the company's DirecTV Plus HD DVR or R22 DVR receiver. The service carries more than 4,000 titles, including many in high-definition, and includes customized programming functions, Internet-based DVR scheduling and other free and pay-per-view programming options.

The new offering should help DirecTV become more competitive as more service providers, such as telcos (including former partner AT&T), are stalking the company's base of 17 million TV customers.

For more:
- check out this report at HD-Report

Related articles:
DirecTV posted stronger first quarter growth than Dish Network DirecTV report
AT&T announced late last year it would stop re-selling DirecTV AT&T report