DIRECTV Songs of Praise for Christmas

Cable Prices Set to Increase

SOURCE: TVPredictions.com; November 22, 2006

Is Comcast Raising Monthly Rates? Citing more high-def channels, the cable operator tells Washington state residents that a price hike is coming.

Washington, D.C. (November 22, 2006) -- Comcast has notified some customers in Washington state that their monthly cable bills will soon increase by an average of 6.5 percent.

In the past, Comcast has first tipped off plans to raise monthly fees nationally by revealing a price hike in a few regions. The news of the Washington state rate increase was reported today by the Daily Herald in Everett, Washington.

The newspaper reported that Comcast will increase the monthly cable TV bill there by an average of $3.09 -- about 6.5 percent -- beginning January 1

Comcast officials in Washington cited the addition of more services, including High-Definition TV, as a reason for the price hike.

"We've more than doubled the amount of viewing choices for customers who now have the most HDTV and VOD (video-on-demand) viewing options with 100 hours of HD on demand and nearly 7,000 video on demand titles each month," said Steve Kipp, a Comcast vice president of communications.

Kipp said customers would soon get notices in the mail with a breakdown of price increases for specific services.

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.’

DIRECTV will carry NFL Network Games in HD!

SOURCE: TVPredictions.com; Monday November 20, 2006

‘Washington, D.C. (November 20, 2006) -- DIRECTV confirmed tonight that it will carry the NFL Network's 2006 regular season games in High-Definition TV, beginning with the Thanksgiving night broadcast between Denver and Kansas City.

You will not need a subscription to DIRECTV's NFL Sunday Ticket to watch the games in high-def.

Based on two sources close to the situation, TVPredictions.com reported last month that DIRECTV would broadcast the games in HD. However, the satcaster had not publicly confirmed that until now.

For the first time, the NFL Network has the rights to broadcast eight regular season games. The channel will air seven more games after Thanksgiving night -- four on Thursday nights and three on Saturday nights.

The eight games will be shown on NFL Network HD, the channel's high-def feed, as well as its non-HD channel.

However, DIRECTV currently does not carry NFL Network HD, which left many fans wondering if the satcaster would broadcast the games in HD. But DIRECTV spokesman Robert Mercer said the games would air in high-def on channel 95, the satcaster's channel for special HD events.

EchoStar, DIRECTV's main satellite rival, added NFL Network HD to its lineup of high-def channels earlier this year.

Cable operators, including Comcast, are also expected to broadcast the NFL Network games in HD. But some cable companies are still negotiating for the rights to air the contests.’

DIRECTV Finds Hidden Gems - GemsTV

GemsTV has signed an agreement with DirecTV to carry its television programs in the United States starting late November 2006, in a deal which could enable GemsTV to reach 15 million U.S. subscribers.

SOURCE: skyREPORT.com, Thursday November 16, 2006

‘British gemstone jewelry shopping channel GemsTV will be launching for the first time in the United States exclusively on DIRECTV. Beginning on Wednesday, Nov. 29, DIRECTV subs nationwide will be able to view the U.K. jewelry network on channel 233.

According to DIRECTV, GemsTV is able to offer its prices by using "The Game, the only reverse auction method on TV in the United States." As each game proceeds the price of the product continues to drop until all pieces have been bid on. No matter what price each buyer bids throughout the game, all buyers only pay the final lowest price, the company said.

With limited quantities of each design, games last several minutes with approximately eight games per hour. DIRECTV said GemsTV and its website (http://www.gemstv.com/) will be fully integrated. GemsTV will air live reverse auctions 20 hours a day, seven days a week from 8 a.m. to 4 a.m. ET.

GemsTV specializes in offering genuine gemstone jewelry in handcrafted designs direct from the manufacturers. The shopping channel will offer more than 170 different types of precious and semi-precious gemstones that originate from more than 45 countries around the world.’

Personalized Programming Hits DIRECTV – ‘My TV Planner’

SOURCE: SkyREPORT.com (Tuesday November 14, 2006)

‘Mixed reaction to DIRECTV’s recently reported third quarter results has the satellite industry waiting to see just how the company will attempt to improve its performance. With subscriber additions growing - albeit at a slower-than-desired pace - the nation's largest satellite TV provider is launching new technology to help those subs find the programming they are looking for a little bit easier than before.

With hundreds of channels to choose from, DIRECTV has developed a feature on the company's website called My TV Planner which helps customers find movies, TV shows and other programming events that interest only them. Together with technology from Cambridge-based ChoiceStream, DIRECTV subs will soon be able to manage the company's programming.

According to reports, customers will be able to rate programming, sort programs, create personalized TV schedules and receive recommendations all through the My TV Planner feature.

ChoiceStream also supplies the technology for Yahoo's My Movies and online subscription service eMusic. The company uses ratings in genre, mood and character tension when customizing content to match preferences of like-minded users.’

DIRECTV’s Fox Sports Net (FSN) Channels Double HD Telecasts

SOURCE: Broadcastingcable.com (Thursday November 9, 2006)

Fox Sports Net (FSN) says it plans to double its schedule of high-definition telecasts of live sporting events over the next year.

FSN says its 18 regional sports networks will air nearly 1,000 games in HD, including contests from the National Basketball Association, Major League Baseball, the National Hockey League, and college football and basketball.

FSN will produce more than 2,500 of live event programming, which it says makes it the most prolific producers of HD sports programming in the country. Next fall, FSN plans on opening a new technical operations center in Houston that will improve its capacity to transmit HD programming.