directv first quarter webcast info

[iceturkee]

some more info from today's webcast. i apologize i have been dealing with the VA so i only have brief info.

i came in the middle of a presentation from mike (not sure who he is, so i apologize)

* the sales of hd dvr's increase 4 times from previous year. top priority remains adding more hd customers. this means more csr's will be added and they need to run more effectively and efficiently.

chase carey:
* DTV 10 still sked for late june launch. first round of additional hd channels will be added in september (if everything remains on target). plan is still to have 100 additional hd channels by dec. 31. and the number of hd lil markets will increase from 59 to 75.

* DTV 11 launch now sked for sometime during the first half of 2008. this is directly because of the sea launch anomoly from earlier this year. this will move back some of the smaller hd lil markets from lighting up. by 2008, they still intend to have 150 national hd channels and 1500 local hd markets.

* video on demand is in beta and expected to be launched this summer.

i wish i could report more but have been playing phone tag with the VA. hope this helps!

*

 

[moonman]

Transcript.......... http://media.seekingalpha.com/article/35092

 

[iceturkee]

thanks for posting that moonman. i was thinking about watching the archived webcast but hadn't gotten there yet!

 

[Scott Greczkowski]

Here is the HD part that everyone is looking for.

Chase Carey

Thanks, Mike. In the coming months, we have a number of major initiatives as we look out over 2007. At the top of the list is clearly our planned launch of a new satellite, a satellite we are calling DirecTV-10 in late June. This satellite will greatly increase our HD capacity beginning in September; that's about the target when we hope the satellite should be operational if everything stays on target. With that satellite, we'll move forward to later this year, towards the end of the year bringing 100 channels of HD to the marketplace.

This satellite will also provide us with capacity to continue to deliver local HD channels, looking to target about 75 markets that we would be at towards the end of the year, that would represent about 75% of US households to be up from 59 -60 markets we're in today. The second satellite, DirecTV-11, is scheduled to be in service the first half of next year. That satellite is delayed a bit as we said before due to the C launch problems. That delay really only has an impact on probably pushback some of our local HD launches but it's not material because we're really, at this point, moving down to smaller markets that on an individual basis are not as big a part of our plans.

But once we get that satellite up, DirecTV-11 with DirecTV-10 we will have the capacity for over 150 national channels and 1,500 plus local channels. Really again, I think a position that is going to put us in a unique position competitively for a real period of time.

 

[Brewer4]

Taking this thread off sticky to free the page up. Let me know if anyone wants it back up.

 

[iceturkee]

go ahead and remove......i thought i had originally put this on a timed sticky but guess not.