I am not totally in agreement that DirecTV's financial picture is tied to any 1 particular satellite launch. First of all, they have already purchased a spare (DIRECTV12), and they have another sat (DIRECTV 11) ready to go in 6 months or so. There is also available 'leased space' if needed, I believe.
I also have been told by my 'inside' contact that they in fact have some options with existing sats should they have to resort to them. He tells me that in fact there are 'contingency' plans' that have been long drawn up to deal with just such an emergency. Don't get me wrong - we are not talking about bandwidth for 100 HD channels mind you.
It is something I really don't even want to consider at this point however.
I also have been told by my 'inside' contact that they in fact have some options with existing sats should they have to resort to them. He tells me that in fact there are 'contingency' plans' that have been long drawn up to deal with just such an emergency. Don't get me wrong - we are not talking about bandwidth for 100 HD channels mind you.
It is something I really don't even want to consider at this point however.