What is DirecTV?

DirecTV is a direct broadcast satellite (DBS) service that
broadcasts digital satellite television and audio to households
in the United States and the rest of the Americas. DirecTV is
owned by DirecTV Group, a subsidiary of News Corporation’s Fox
Entertainment Group.

History

DirecTV was launched in 1994 by General Motors subsidiary
Hughes Electronics. It was the first high-powered DBS service
in the world.

In 1998 DirecTV acquired its partner, USSB for $1.3 billion. In
1999 DirecTV acquired PrimeStar for $1.83 billion. In 2003, a
merger with Echostar, owner of Dish Network, fell through.

On December 22, 2003, controlling interest in Hughes Electronics
was sold by General Motors to News Corporation.

DirecTV has long been a victim of an active piracy underground
but has recently begun to crack down on illegal reception of its
signals. On its anti-piracy website, DirecTV claims to have sued
over 24,000 end users as of March 17, 2004, including celebrity
O.J. Simpson. DirecTV bases their suits on purchase records of
ISO-7816 Smart Card devices, which are used to rewrite DirecTV’s
access cards.

General information

DirecTV typically uses smaller 18-inch satellite Dishes to
receive its signals. Slightly larger, 18×24-inch oval antennas to
access multi-satellites are becoming more common as DirecTV (as
well as other DBS services) are attempting to squeeze more
programming onto their growing systems, particularly local
television network affiliates stations as well as hybrid systems
that also receive broadband satellite Internet service.

DirecTV is often abbreviated as “DTV”. However, DTV has recently
been used to refer to digital television. Due to this conflict,
and the fact that Echostar is often abbreviated “E*” (“E” for
Echo, “*” for star), DirecTV is more commonly abbreviated as “D*”.

DirecTV receivers (television set-top boxes) were originally
referred to as “Digital Satellite Service”, or DSS, so that
services being broadcast by both DirecTV and USSB would appear to
be received by generic equipment. In 1998, after the acquisition
of USSB, an American court ruled that the term “DSS” was an
already trademarked term that could not be used by DirecTV.

DirecTV offers local channels in 93% of U.S. markets. Local
channels are transmitted over terrestrial optical fiber networks
to the Castle Rock Broadcast Center, in Castle Rock, Colorado,
where they are uplinked.

DirecTV also offers high-definition television (HDTV), and in
partnership with TiVo it offers a digital video recorder (DVR)
service, often nicknamed DirecTiVo. As of March 31, 2005 DirecTV
has 14.45 million customers in the U.S. and 1.57 million in Latin
America. 2005 revenues for DirecTV U.S. is now $3.15 billion.


This article is licensed under the GFDL
(http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html). It uses material from the
Wikipedia article "DirecTV" (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DirecTV).


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