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DirecTV Faces its First Ever Loss of Customers

Fri Aug 03, 2012 at 10:00 AM ET
Tags: DIRECTV, Viacom, Industry Trends (all tags)

It appears the spat with Viacom had a significant effect on the company. DirecTV says the drop is due to policy.

DirecTV is a company with an impressive track record. It loses customers and gains customers like any other, but it has never lost more than it gained. Until now.

In the last quarter, DirecTV lost 52,000 subscribers. While it seems obvious to point at the recent loss and then renewal of Viacom programming as the issue, DirecTV claims that tighter credit restrictions and a new target of "higher quality" customers means that the loss was to be expected.

Whatever the reason, you can bet folks at DirecTV aren't looking thrilled right now.

Source: Engadget

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DirecTV Faces its First Ever Loss of Customers

Fri Aug 03, 2012 at 10:00 AM ET
Tags: DIRECTV, Viacom, Industry Trends (all tags)

It appears the spat with Viacom had a significant effect on the company. DirecTV says the drop is due to policy.

DirecTV is a company with an impressive track record. It loses customers and gains customers like any other, but it has never lost more than it gained. Until now.

In the last quarter, DirecTV lost 52,000 subscribers. While it seems obvious to point at the recent loss and then renewal of Viacom programming as the issue, DirecTV claims that tighter credit restrictions and a new target of "higher quality" customers means that the loss was to be expected.

Whatever the reason, you can bet folks at DirecTV aren't looking thrilled right now.

Source: Engadget

See what people are saying about this story in our forums area, or check out other recent discussions.


DirecTV and Viacom Reach Agreement – Pulled Channels are Back on the Air

Mon Jul 23, 2012 at 10:00 AM ET
Tags: Viacom, DIRECTV (all tags)

The new agreement gives Viacom a bit more money and makes Epix an option, but not required.

The battle between DirecTV and Viacom is finally over, which is certainly to the delight of DirecTV subscribers and those that watch Viacom's shows online. Channels have been returned, free online status has been restored and everything is – for now – back to normal.

Judging by a report from Bloomberg, rates increased, but not by the 30% that was initially demanded. DirecTV will be paying 20% more for the channels, with Epix remaining an option for customers, instead of a requirement.

Source: Multichannel News

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DirecTV and Viacom Reach Agreement – Pulled Channels are Back on the Air

Mon Jul 23, 2012 at 10:00 AM ET
Tags: Viacom, DIRECTV (all tags)

The new agreement gives Viacom a bit more money and makes Epix an option, but not required.

The battle between DirecTV and Viacom is finally over, which is certainly to the delight of DirecTV subscribers and those that watch Viacom's shows online. Channels have been returned, free online status has been restored and everything is – for now – back to normal.

Judging by a report from Bloomberg, rates increased, but not by the 30% that was initially demanded. DirecTV will be paying 20% more for the channels, with Epix remaining an option for customers, instead of a requirement.

Source: Multichannel News

See what people are saying about this story in our forums area, or check out other recent discussions.


DirecTV/Viacom War Wages On

Thu Jul 19, 2012 at 10:00 AM ET
Tags: DIRECTV, Viacom (all tags)

DirecTV says they've agreed to Viacom's terms – Viacom says they're making things up.

Things are getting heated between the folks at Viacom and DirecTV, and it's getting worse. When this whole mess started, the companies were in disagreement on licensing fees – now they can't agree on anything.

DirecTV says they've lost 17 channels while Viacom says they've pulled 26. Even more glaring is that the companies don't even have the same story when it comes to negotiations. DirecTV says that they've agreed to Viacom's terms, but are holding out because "Viacom insists that we carry the EPIX channel at an additional cost of more than half a billion dollars."

Viacom fires back in their latest blog entry. "DirecTV's most recent press release regarding EPIX is one more complete work of fiction from the company." That language is about as nasty as PR tends to get.

Source: Engadget

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DirecTV/Viacom War Wages On

Thu Jul 19, 2012 at 10:00 AM ET
Tags: DIRECTV, Viacom (all tags)

DirecTV says they've agreed to Viacom's terms – Viacom says they're making things up.

Things are getting heated between the folks at Viacom and DirecTV, and it's getting worse. When this whole mess started, the companies were in disagreement on licensing fees – now they can't agree on anything.

DirecTV says they've lost 17 channels while Viacom says they've pulled 26. Even more glaring is that the companies don't even have the same story when it comes to negotiations. DirecTV says that they've agreed to Viacom's terms, but are holding out because "Viacom insists that we carry the EPIX channel at an additional cost of more than half a billion dollars."

Viacom fires back in their latest blog entry. "DirecTV's most recent press release regarding EPIX is one more complete work of fiction from the company." That language is about as nasty as PR tends to get.

Source: Engadget

See what people are saying about this story in our forums area, or check out other recent discussions.


Viacom Pulls Free Online TV Shows in Response to DirecTV

Thu Jul 12, 2012 at 12:00 PM ET
Tags: Viacom, DIRECTV (all tags)

The shows have been replaced with an ad calling out to viewers to call DirecTV and demand the channel be returned.

Yesterday, DirecTV released a statement saying that one of the big problems with paying more for Viacom programming is that some of the most popular shows, including The Daily Show, The Colbert Report, Jersey Shore and more are available for free online.

In response to that, Viacom has removed all of those shows from the internet. Viacom says that these free episodes are intended to be a sort of advertisement for affiliates, but has removed them since, as Multichannel News writer Todd Spangler puts it, "DirecTV is marketing internet video destinations as an alternative to the full networks."

"Once again it's viewers who suffer when media companies stall in their negotiations," says John Bergmayer, staff attorney at consumer-advocacy group Public Knowledge. "Viacom has decided to take a service away from all Internet users in its attempt to punish DirecTV. It is apparent that Viacom puts little stock in the Internet and the online future of video if it is willing to use all Internet users as a pawn in its negotiations."

Source:Multichannel News

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Viacom Pulled from DirecTV

Wed Jul 11, 2012 at 12:00 PM ET
Tags: Viacom, DIRECTV (all tags)

Apparently, Viacom is looking for a 30 percent rate increase. DirecTV, as you might imagine, isn't down with that.

The sad fact of being a satellite TV subscriber is that you have to deal with seemingly constant struggles for content. Dish has been dealing with the loss of content thanks to their new DVR and now DirecTV faces the loss of channels due to a licensing agreement.

"We have been very willing to get a deal done," says DirecTV EVP of Content Derek Chang, "but Viacom is pushing DirecTV customers to pay more than a 30% increase, which equates to an extra $1 billion, despite the fact that the ratings for many of their main networks have plummeted and much of Viacom's programming can be seen for free online."

"We proposed a fair deal that amounted to an increase of only a couple pennies per day, per subscriber, and we remained willing to negotiate that deal right up to this evening's deadline," says Viacom in a statement. "However, DirecTV refused to engage in meaningful conversation."

Source: Multichannel News

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DirecTV Will Launch TV and Broadband Bundles

Mon May 21, 2012 at 12:00 PM ET
Tags: DIRECTV (all tags)

Starting later this year, you'll be able to get a 10Mbps connection through your satellite.

One of the oddities that comes with satellite television providers is that you need to go through another company for your internet. By the end of 2012, that won't be a problem.

DirecTV has announced a plan to launch bundled internet with its satellite subscriptions, giving you up to a 10Mbps download speed. This uses the Gen4 technology pioneered by Hughes and ViaSat.

"We look forward to offering every single DIRECTV customer access to fast, affordable broadband options through DIRECTV, no matter where they live," says senior VP Oswin Eleonara. "With greatly improved capacity and speeds, satellite broadband services provided by ViaSat and Hughes will fully support our customers’ connected home experience."

Details will emerge later this year as the service comes closer to launch.

Source: Electronic House

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DirecTV Lowers Price on NFL Sunday Ticket

Mon Apr 23, 2012 at 12:00 PM ET
Tags: DIRECTV, NFL Sunday Ticket (all tags)

You'll pay $199 for a standard Sunday Ticket subscription, while $100 more gets you phone access and more.

The folks at DirecTV have just made life very nice for football fans. They've dropped the price of the NFL Sunday Ticket from $325 down to $199 – that's around 40% off of the former price.

That $199 gets you HD out-of-market NFL games as well as Player Tracker, real-time stats and the Mix Channel which displays up to eight games at once. If you shell out $299 – still under last year's price – you get the Red Zone channel, Short Cuts and the ability to watch every game on your computer, tablet or phone.

Source: Bloomberg

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