Best Buy to help new HDTV customers with satellite bill payments

Best Buy, Inc. (NYSE: BBY) is stepping up promotion of high-definition TV in its stores by paying for satellite bills of customers who buy a new HDTV along with DirecTV service. From looking at the details, it looks like a promotion like this is probably much more attractive than running constant "sales" on HDTV sets.

Best Buy will pay $30 of a new DirecTV customer's monthly satellite television bill for 12 months as part of the promotion geared towards increasing awareness of hi-def TV among its customers, the retailer announced last week. There are caveats, of course. Customers taking advantage of the promotion must sign up for one of DirecTV's high-definition programming packages and the customer must also purchase a new HDTV set worth at least $999. The retailer will pay for six months of $30 HD programming if the new HDTV set is priced under $999.

Al things considered, this is one of the neater promotions I've seen from the consumer electronics retailer, specifically geared towards getting HDTVs into the hands of more customers. The cost of HDTVs isn't in the set itself, but in the pricing of programming. It's true that over-the-air HD programming from local networks is free, but there's a whole world of niche HD programming available from cable and satellite. Here's a suggestion, Best Buy: pay $30 of a new HDTV customer's bill for 24 months with a new HDTV purchase of $1999 or more, since most of them cost that much anyway.