DIRECTV's Fully Cricket Channel

SOURCE: SkyREPORT.com; Monday November 20, 2006

‘PROGRAMMING -- DIRECTV launched the first 24-hour cricket channel in the United States. Cricket Plus will air rebroadcasts and same day highlights of ICC events including the Cricket World Cup 2007, as well as cricket from the West Indies, Sri Lanka, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and Zimbabwe. DIRECTV said it will continue to broadcast matches live, on a pay-per-view basis, through its CricketTicket package. The channel is being offered through an agreement with Dubai-based Taj TV and is available free to subscribers to DIRECTV's HindiDirect and HindiDirect II packages.

PERSONNEL -- The Senate confirmed Kevin Martin for a second five-year term as Chairman of the FCC. "I look forward to working with the Administration and Congress, as well as with my fellow Commissioners and staff at the FCC to ensure that all Americans share in the benefits and opportunities offered by the best communications system in the world," Martin said. "I will continue to work to provide a regulatory environment that promotes competition and drives investment and innovation while protecting consumers and promoting public safety."

PROGRAMMING -- Time Warner Cable's EVP of programming Fred Dressler said at the Sports Media and Technology summit in New York last week that the MSO is 100 percent sure that it will not come to terms with NFL Network before its Thursday/Saturday-night game package kicks off on Thanksgiving, Nov. 23. Unfortunately for the company's subscribers, they will not be able to view the Denver Broncos vs. Kansas City Chiefs game that night.

RESEARCH -- A new survey suggests that viewers with HDTV are watching more sports whether they are fans or not. The ESPN report found 22 percent of sports fans viewed events because they had HD, another 22 percent who didn't consider themselves sports fans also watched more sporting events on their HDTVs compared to their analog sets.’