Some TV executives are crowing about the pending boom in advertising, which we believe could not only help broadcasters and media companies like CBS Corp. (CBS), Viacom, Inc. (VIA) and The Walt Disney Company (DIS) as well as satellite pay-TV providers like DirecTV (DTV) and Dish Network (DISH). Our price estimate for DirecTV stands at $48.63 which is roughly a premium of 7% to the market price.

Continue reading Improving Ad Market Lifts All Boats, Including DirecTV's

Improving Ad Market Lifts All Boats, Including DirecTV's originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Thu, 17 Mar 2011 16:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

So far, big satellite TV company DirecTV (NYSE: DTV) has been able to offer hundreds of channels and high definition, but it has not had "on demand" options. Cable and fiber-based telecom TV products do have the service and that gives them an edge with consumers.

DirecTV has set out to remedy that problem. According to The Wall Street Journal, "The No. 1 satellite-TV provider by subscribers is testing its own version of an on-demand movies and television service that it plans to launch in the second quarter." The programming will be sent to consumers set-top boxes and be stored there for later selection. While the system is not ideal because disk space limits what the box can hold, it is better than no "on demand" at all. Movies not in storage can be streamed from DirecTV over the internet to the box.

The news is certainly not good for telecom and cable companies. The market for "on demand" is getting very crowded. Cable "owned" the home TV system until companies, especially Verizon (NYSE: VZ) built fiber systems to carry programming into the home. That made two sets of competitors trying to get the consumer to use their products. Now there will be a third.

Three well-funded competitors trying to get market share usually leads to a price war. Getting "on demand" TV services is probably about to get much cheaper.

Douglas A. McIntyre is an editor at 247wallst.com.

DirecTV (DTV) goes 'on demand' originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Thu, 13 Mar 2008 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Walter Cronkite is coming back. I know you've been holding your breath since he retired in 1981, but it's OK. He is expected to take a job as an anchor on a cable network called Retirement Living TV. Florence Henderson is also on the network. Sounds like a recipe for a ratings blockbuster.

The network celebrated its one-year anniversary last week, and only has coverage on DIRECTV Group Inc.'s (NYSE: DTV) network for 8 hours a day. It is also broadcast on Comcast Corp.'s (NASDAQ: CMCSA) CN8 for 4 hours.

Retirement Living bills itself as "the new voice of a generation underserved by the media industry. We hope to change not only the way you watch TV, but the way you live your life."

But the question is whether seniors really want to watch "old people TV". My grandmother likes to watch CNN and E! to keep up with the latest celebrity gossip -- makes her feel young. In a society with such an emphasis on youth, are Florence Henderson and Walter Cronkite really a good way to attract seniors?

So far the network has failed to catch on big, and I don't expect it will.

Walter Cronkite lands on a network for old people originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Mon, 17 Sep 2007 14:12:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

A lawsuit was filed late last week that has Time Warner Inc. (NYSE: TWX) suing DirecTV Group, Inc. (NYSE:DTV) over deceptive trade practices and false advertising about the NFL Network. The suit filed in Manhattan, with unspecified damages sought, claims that DirecTV was trying to lure away customers from Time Warner Cable by lying about accessibility of pro football broadcasts in local markets.

It cited newspaper advertisements claiming that the Dec. 30 game between the New York Giants and the Washington Redskins will not be available to 4.4 million people around New York unless they join the DirecTV network, yet Time Warner Cable said the game will be available to its customers in New York on WNBC-TV regardless of if they have DirecTV or not. Time Warner also notes that the same sort of trickery has occurred in Green Bay, Cincinnati and elsewhere.

The suit also says that the satellite provider used ads with Jessica Simpson and William Shatner saying that HD TV was better on satellite, when both can be the same. DirecTV apparently ran these ads after agreeing to change them.

What Time Warner didn't say was that if this news broke simultaneously on cable and on satellite TV, you would have gotten the news 3 to 5 seconds faster via cable than via satellite. Time Warner Cable should do a commercial showing a "Bandwidth Taste Test" with a recording of a live broadcast on cable versus on satellite. If you are a trader in the markets or involved in the media, you cannot afford that delay in satellite TV.

This suit will almost certainly not involve monetary awards for Time Warner, but it shows that Satellite TV may have to use a little trickery to win cable subscribers these days.

Time Warner sues to keep satellite TV honest originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Sat, 09 Dec 2006 10:32:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.