DirecTV introducing new DVR tomorrow 10/9

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rtt2

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DirecTV introducing new DVR tomorrow

Posted Oct 9, 2005, 2:42 PM ET by Peter Rojas

It’s the day TiVo hoped would never come: tomorrow DirecTV is launching a $30 million advertising campaign to introduce its new in-house digital video recorder, the R15 DirecTV Plus DVR. The DVR, which should be available before the end of the month, will be able to record up to 100 hours of programming and will cost $5.99 a month (which is the same as what they’re charging for DirecTV with TiVo); a version capable of recording HDTV should be available sometime in the middle of next year.

You’ll still be able to get DirecTV with TiVo until an agreement between the two companies runs out in early 2007, but DirecTV has already stopped all marketing TiVo to its subscribers (if you want it, you have to ask) and will almost certainly do their damnedest to convince as many people as possible to sign up for their DVR rather than for TiVo’s (dropping the monthly price a bit would probably help). This doesn’t by any means spell the end of TiVo. DirecTV users account for only a small percentage of the company’s overall revenue — they’re only making about a buck a month off of every DirecTV with TiVo subscribe, which is way less than they’re making from standalone subscribers — but this arrangement did help them pump up their subcriber base in a pretty significant way. They better hope their deal with Comcast gets rolling right quick.


http://www.engadget.com/entry/1234000753062482/
 
DirecTV to promote own TiVo
Posted Oct 7, 2005, 10:58 AM ET by Martin Conaghan

The New York Times is reporting that DirecTV is reportedly set to unveil a PVR on Monday 10 October as part of a $30 million advertising campaign. The move will be viewed as a direct challenge to TiVo's dominance of the digital video recorder market in the U.S.

The DirecTV PVR box is rumored to be capable of storing around 100 hours of television content, compared with 30 hours on a standard, unmodified TiVo box.

Monthly subscription charges should be around $5.99 -- a direct comparison with the current monthly subscription fee for TiVo services.

http://www.pvrwire.com/2005/10/07/directv-to-promote-on-tivo/
 
October 7, 2005
In a Challenge to TiVo, DirecTV Promotes Its Own Box
By JANE L. LEVERE

DIRECTV, the satellite television operator, is introducing a $30 million advertising campaign on Monday to promote its highly anticipated digital video recorder.

The campaign, created by the New York office of BBDO Worldwide, is DirecTV's first widespread public effort to distance itself from TiVo. Of DirecTV's 14.7 million customers, 2.3 million now subscribe to TiVo. DirecTV, which pays TiVo a monthly fee of $1.13 per TiVo subscriber, hopes those users will switch to its own service.

The software for the new service is provided by NDS, a subsidiary of the News Corporation, which also owns a controlling interest in DirecTV.

DirecTV's standard DVR, originally set to be released this past June, will be introduced in late October, and another model featuring high-definition service will be introduced in mid-2006. The standard DVR will feature up to 100 hours of recordable space, compared with TiVo's 70 hours.

DirecTV will continue to support the TiVo service without marketing it, and both services will be priced at $5.99 a month. The company's current contract with TiVo is set to expire in early 2007. DirecTV has not said if it will continue the contract after that.

Bruce Leichtman, a media analyst based in Durham, N.H., said of DirecTV, "They're doing this for the bottom line, to save over $1 per TiVo subscriber per month."

Another motive for the new service, according to Laura Behrens, a media analyst for Gartner, is the desire of News Corporation's chairman and chief executive, Rupert Murdoch, to "have his companies work for his companies."

"It's been an important strategic goal ever since he took over DirecTV."

Eric Shanks, a senior vice president of DirecTV, said the company viewed the introduction of its own DVR as a kind of "silver bullet" to "attract, satisfy and addict customers."

"The longer someone stays with us, the less we have to spend to get new customers. It costs us $650 - for hardware, installation and marketing - to get one subscriber, so we prefer keeping subscribers as long as we can so we don't have to spend that kind of money to get new ones."

Yet another factor is increased competition from cable companies. Many of them also offer DVR service; in fact, some, including the No. 1 cable operator, Comcast, and the No. 6 cable operator, Cablevision, recently made a deal to offer their subscribers TiVo's DVR.

"Cable operators are trying to focus consumers' attention on buying video with data or video with data and voice, and the Bells are trying to get into video to do the same thing," said Douglas Shapiro, a media analyst with Banc of America Securities. Since satellite providers can offer only one of these three services - video - DirecTV's strategy must be to "offer the best possible video product it can," he said.

The new ad campaign strives to explain the benefits of DirecTV's new DVR service in language easily understood by people who are not early adopters of technology, said Tracy Devine, vice president for advertising at DirecTV.

"We've taken everyday real situations, and are balancing people's passion for TV with their passion for their families and other things in their lives," said Al Merrin, vice chairman and executive creative director of the New York office of BBDO, which is a unit of the Omnicom Group.

To that end, a print ad shows the roof of a house against a starry night sky; one arrow in the sky points up to the DirecTV satellite that "broadcasts the amazing hole in one" of a golf game while another arrow points down to the DirecTV DVR in the house that "lets you watch it over and over without missing the next hole." The ad also describes features including the ability to record a whole season of shows, and to pause and rewind live TV.

One TV spot depicts a child asking his father, who is watching a football game on TV, to read to him; the father can do this and record the game simultaneously, thanks to his DVR. In another spot, a teacher asks a student to name her favorite person; the student says it is her "daddy, because he lets me watch cartoons all the time, even during the game."

The tagline on all the advertising is "Somebody up there loves you, DirecTV."

The campaign is running on network and cable television on shows like "Desperate Housewives," "CSI: NY" and "SportsCenter," and in magazines like Entertainment Weekly, Men's Journal and Cargo. Ads will also run on radio and in newspapers in the Top 20 markets in the United States.

DirecTV, which is based in El Segundo, Calif., plans to spend $30 million on the DVR campaign in the fourth quarter. According to TNS Media Intelligence, the company's advertising expenditures have increased annually since 2001, growing from $175 million that year to $237 million last year.

Media industry observers had mixed reactions to the campaign. Mr. Leichtman, the media analyst in New Hampshire, said the TV spots resemble previous TV advertising for DVR's by Time Warner Cable and others. He also said that the campaign seemed to try too hard. "What people like most about DVR's is that they're an easier way to record programs," he said. "They're trying to explain too much."

Ms. Behrens of the Gartner Group said "a lot of factors argue in the campaign's favor."

"DirecTV is doing more marketing and it's been quiet for a while. Consumers will buy as high in the line as they can afford. DirecTV will stop marketing the TiVo box and drive new subscribers to its model. And it's the fourth quarter, when people buy electronics for the holidays."

One factor that could affect DirecTV is a suit that TiVo has filed against EchoStar Communications, which offers its own DVR service. TiVo claims EchoStar's DVR infringes on its patents.

The judge hearing the case issued a preliminary ruling in August that TiVo has said it believes supports its position; the trial begins later this month. Should TiVo win, that could set a precedent for future DVR patent infringement suits.

Edward Lichty, vice president for corporate development at TiVo, said that "if we believed the NDS product violated TiVo's intellectual property, one course of action we would have would be to sue NDS and possibly DirecTV."

"I imagine the lawyers for DirecTV are paying close attention to what happens with the EchoStar case."

Josh Bernoff, an analyst with Forrester Research, predicted that if TiVo won the EchoStar suit, "it will go after DirecTV."

"The most likely outcome would be payments to TiVo for every DirecTV unit shipped. They could end up getting almost as much money as they do now."

Both DirecTV and EchoStar declined to comment on the suit.


http://www.nytimes.com/2005/10/07/business/07adco.html?pagewanted=print
 
Do you know if the $5.99/month fee will be like Tivo, it's per account and not per receiver and is it waived if you have TCP?
 
rtt2 said:

The thing that bothers me is that in the Best Buy site's photos you cannot see any cooling fan like that on the current Directv Tivo DVR's. I'd also like to see some specs, mainly whether the new R15 is using 5400rpm or 7200rpm drives. The current Tivos use 5400rpm drives. I've always heard they use the slower drives because the faster ones tend to burn out when used in a Tivo.
 
This is probably a dumb question.

If I were to add an R15 to my existing 2 Tivo's on my account, would I also pay a DirecTV DVR fee for the R15 in addition to the Tivo fee?
 
Also interesting from this standpoint, D* and E* are having a hard time up selling DVR's these days since most that wanted them now have them and the remaining potential scoff at additional fees on top of mirroring fees when told.

Also, who is going to jump on D*'s unproven Tivo clone for the same monthly cost? If there where no fee, you would have plenty. Simply do like E*, and surprise your subs with fees later.
 
I don't have a DVR and I would be willing to try this one if I could get it installed for free.... Do you guys know if it is available to order?
 
Our first allocation of R15' is due in November 7, 2005 and DIRECTV's $100 mail-in DVR rebate has been extended. We have a wait list if you want to be among the first to own DIRECTV's next generation DVR.

-Robert
 
I currently don't have a DVR and my wife has been nagging at me for months to get one. One problem I have is that I have 2 HD STB and I will not replace them with a SD DVR. That means the DVR will have to go into another room and replace an existing SD STB. I'm waiting for the next gen HD DVRs to come out before I replace either of my HD STBs. I'm also hoping that there will be some sort of leasing program to get them. I don't want to pay hundreds of dollars to get them. I paid enough for the HD STBs.

A more immediate problem I have is that I have maxed out the available lines from my dishes. I have 2 dishes. One is the newer oval triple LNB that has 4 outputs. I also have an old single LNB 18" round one that I have had since 1995. If I get a DVR I will want to use the dual tuner feature so I will need a 6th output. That would mean I would need to replace the LNB on my old dish with a dual LNB which I'm reluctant to do since the dishes will probably be replaced soon with new dishes.

Do I have any other alternatives?

Edit: Are these new DVRs MPEG-4 capable?
 
uncrules said:
I currently don't have a DVR and my wife has been nagging at me for months to get one. One problem I have is that I have 2 HD STB and I will not replace them with a SD DVR. That means the DVR will have to go into another room and replace an existing SD STB. I'm waiting for the next gen HD DVRs to come out before I replace either of my HD STBs. I'm also hoping that there will be some sort of leasing program to get them. I don't want to pay hundreds of dollars to get them. I paid enough for the HD STBs.

A more immediate problem I have is that I have maxed out the available lines from my dishes. I have 2 dishes. One is the newer oval triple LNB that has 4 outputs. I also have an old single LNB 18" round one that I have had since 1995. If I get a DVR I will want to use the dual tuner feature so I will need a 6th output. That would mean I would need to replace the LNB on my old dish with a dual LNB which I'm reluctant to do since the dishes will probably be replaced soon with new dishes.

Do I have any other alternatives?

Edit: Are these new DVRs MPEG-4 capable?

DirecTV will give a 4X8 multi switch with install.
 
So these upgraded SD DVR units are available in stores, i.e. Best Buy, etc.? How much is D* themselves selling it for? Any deals for existing customers? I've got the 35 hour TIVO unit. I'd be more than interested in upgrading it to the 100-one.

Another question...if you buy the new D* DVR, do you need a new access card?
 
Proc said:
So these upgraded SD DVR units are available in stores, i.e. Best Buy, etc.? I've got the 35 hour TIVO unit. I'd be more than interested in upgrading it to the 100-one.
They're not available yet - BB is showing them on their website as 'Coming Soon'.

Proc said:
How much is D* themselves selling it for? Any deals for existing customers?
DTV TiVo Dealer said:
Our first allocation of R15' is due in November 7, 2005 and DIRECTV's $100 mail-in DVR rebate has been extended. We have a wait list if you want to be among the first to own DIRECTV's next generation DVR.

-Robert

Proc said:
Another question...if you buy the new D* DVR, do you need a new access card?
It will come with a new access card.
 
Superfan??

Does anyone know if the R15 will be able to utilize all of the new Superfan interactive features?
 
dnyce said:
Does anyone know if the R15 will be able to utilize all of the new Superfan interactive features?

I believe the answer is yes. Hopefully someone who knows for sure can chime in.
 
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