# DirecTV To Offer FX Shows Prior To Broadcast starting in March



## lee espinoza (Aug 21, 2002)

LAS VEGAS  DirecTV reports that starting in March, for $2.99, fans of The Shield, Rescue Me and other FX Network shows will air 24 to 48 hours before their regularly scheduled times via the satellite service.

This was just one of the new features DirecTV, the No. 1 satellite TV service, unveiled at a press conference, here, during International CES. The announcement was made by News Corporation president Peter Chernin (News Corporation is the parent company of DirecTV, the FOX Network and other media properties). Chernin waxed poetic about CES, saying for the first time, The content and consumer electronics industries are finally coming together.

Along with FX pre-air programming, DirecTV subscribers can also watch five series from the FOX Broadcasting for 99 cents each, six to seven days following their national airing. This feature will be available later this year.

In March, DirecTV will also offer viewers the opportunity to download shows from NBC Networks for 99 cents commercial free. Consumers can choose from shows on NBC, USA, Sci-Fi and Bravo networks. In order to access this content from FOX and NBC, subscribers will need the new DirecTV PlusDVR.

At a wide-ranging new conference, DirecTV president Chase Carey reported his company is making excellent progress on the financial front, has launched three satellites for additional capacity  particularly for HD programming  started broadcasting high-definition locals to 16 select markets, introduced a new line of MPEG-4 receivers as well as signed with XM Satellite Radio to deliver 70 music channels.

In late November, DirecTV began beaming local HD stations to Atlanta, Chicago, Detroit, Philadelphia and San Francisco. They were followed by Boston, Dallas, Houston, Los Angeles, New York and Washington. The company expects to be in 36 markets by midyear, covering almost 60 percent of U.S. TV households. The company delivers local feeds of ABC, CBS, FOX and NBC.

Later in 2006 Carey said the satellite service would start DirecTV2Go, a new service that lets consumers transfer programming from their DirecTV Plus DVR to portable media players from Humax, Thomson and Polaroid. The players have 20GB HDD and 4-inch LCD screens.

http://www.twice.com/article/CA6302905.html


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## JimSpence (Sep 19, 2001)

I suppose this is one way to get people to buy the R15.


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## ebonovic (Jul 24, 2001)

Can't say that I would pay $2.99 to see it earlier then everyone else... but hey... it's something...


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## jfh3 (Apr 15, 2004)

lee espinoza said:


> LAS VEGAS  DirecTV reports that starting in March, for $2.99, fans of The Shield, Rescue Me and other FX Network shows will air 24 to 48 hours before their regularly scheduled times via the satellite service.


Be interesting to see what the CSR script is for the millions of DirecTivo users or more accurately, the dozen or so of them that would actually want to pay $3 to see a show a day or two in advance.

I'll bet most Tivo users watch their shows a day or two AFTER the actual air date, and quasi-commercial-free.

Pretty amazing to me that DTV's market research would indicate there's enough of a market for this product to justify the development/support expense.


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## ebonovic (Jul 24, 2001)

jfh3 said:


> Pretty amazing to me that DTV's market research would indicate there's enough of a market for this product to justify the development/support expense.


From what I have heard and been told, this particular offering is "small potatos" to some of their "end game" usages of this particular technology/feature.

But again, time will tell.

I have a couple of hard core folks at work that will do this for "The Shield" and "Nip/Tuck"... me... I probably more likely to use the $.99 replays to corrected for missed or conflicted recordings.


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## super dave (Oct 1, 2002)

I'm disappointed. I see services to increase their revenue but not really offering much to the consumer. I have been in the habit of watching shows a few days after the broadcast for quite some time, so I see no need to pay to see it early.

When I read on how Dish is going to be offering *25* HD channels by mid year and still zippo from DTV I feel that DTV doesn't have any HD priority and would be happy to see anyone that really wants HD leave. They offer the least amount and I haven't heard of any effort to remedy it.


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## RBA (Jul 15, 2001)

They should be paying me to watch FX.


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## Kanyon71 (Feb 13, 2003)

I can't really say that there is any show I would pay to see a couple days early. I would much rather just record it and watch it whenever I want.


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## tbeckner (Oct 26, 2001)

RBA said:


> They should be paying me to watch FX.





Kanyon71 said:


> I can't really say that there is any show I would pay to see a couple days early. I would much rather just record it and watch it whenever I want.


I'm with both of you.

I am not a big fan of the current FX series.

But I did watch and liked "Over There", but FX cancelled the series. I am an ex-Marine 1968-1972, so that explains that.

But even in that case, I would not pay even $.99 to watch a missed episode, and no way would I pay $2.99 to watch a couple of days in advance.

I have been using TiVo since May 2000, and I watch very little of any live TV, and almost always watch eveything delayed. In fact, I will be watching the Super Bowl delayed this Sunday, so I can skip most of the commercials. I know somebody will remark that the commercials are the best thing, but if they really are good they will make the news in the days following the Super Bowl, so then I could go hunt them down in the recording.


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## srt (Jan 27, 2006)

As a new subscriber I am not impressed with this offering. With the new satellites, how about using the bandwidth items that enhance their offerings, like more hd as was promised. Make that more hd that does not include some ppv scheme.


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## SpacemanSpiff (Jan 31, 2004)

If I owned a DVR that I couldn't depend on to accurately record the shows I wanted when I wanted, then being able to pay to watch a show at a later date might interest me.

On the other hand, paying to watch a show from FX on your DVR at a later date is asnine. Like HBO they show the heck out of it later on in the week.


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## ebonovic (Jul 24, 2001)

tbeckner said:


> I have been using TiVo since May 2000, and I watch very little of any live TV, and almost always watch eveything delayed. In fact, I will be watching the Super Bowl delayed this Sunday, so I can skip most of the commercials. I know somebody will remark that the commercials are the best thing, but if they really are good they will make the news in the days following the Super Bowl, so then I could go hunt them down in the recording.


Commercials "sometimes" are the best part.....
Depends on the Half-Time.... and then maybe the game (rare, but sometimes it is a good game)


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## ebonovic (Jul 24, 2001)

SpacemanSpiff said:


> If I owned a DVR that I couldn't depend on to accurately record the shows I wanted when I wanted, then being able to pay to watch a show at a later date might interest me


Not even the DVD accurately recording the show.

What if the President cuts in, a local emergency, sporting event runs long... the $0.99 to get a repeate... maybe... $2.99 for an early viewing... nah...

Unless maybe it was $2.99 for the entire MONTH, and for ALL the shows...
MAYBE.. still a long shot, but at least that would be a little better.


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## SpacemanSpiff (Jan 31, 2004)

Hey, I live in the land of Tornado Warnings, Non-Stop weather crawls and weather bugs that take up 1/4 of the screen.

On the other hand, that would only interest me if it were replays of OTA (standard) network shows. I'm sticking with the fact that pretty much every cable show, basic or premium channel is shown multiple times during the week so if something goes totally wonky during the first showing, I'm still able to get it some other time. Free.


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## Kanyon71 (Feb 13, 2003)

The only way I will pay is for like SG-1 and Atlantis which I accidentally deleted last week before I could watch them. Now if I could pay like $0.99 to get them again I would do that as there are no repeats of them for a while.


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## ping (Oct 3, 2005)

Missed recordings. Accidentally-deleted recordings (due to an R15 bug). Selling a backup for $0.99. Yep, the state of the R15 software is making sense to me now. 

In fact, I called it before the R15 came out.


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## Jotas (Mar 19, 2005)

ping said:


> Missed recordings. Accidentally-deleted recordings (due to an R15 bug). Selling a backup for $0.99. Yep, the state of the R15 software is making sense to me now.
> 
> In fact, I called it before the R15 came out.


Maybe you should consider changing your board name to Nostradamus.


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## Kanyon71 (Feb 13, 2003)

or you should figure the fact that D* isn't the only one doing this. Anyone ever heard of Apple?


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## RBA (Jul 15, 2001)

Kanyon71 said:


> or you should figure the fact that D* isn't the only one doing this. Anyone ever heard of Apple?


or Google?

http://video.google.com/


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## ping (Oct 3, 2005)

You guys do realize I was joking (some would say trolling), right? I'm not actually suggesting DirecTV would cripple their DVR in order to sell PPV versions of the shows it failed to record.

Having said that, I'm not sure where Apple or Google are relevant, though, as they, unlike DirecTV, don't control DVR devices that would tend to cannibalize their free-TV-made-PPV business.


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## Kanyon71 (Feb 13, 2003)

Well I would think TiVo is looking into something like this also. It just makes sense for them as their box already has much of whats needed to pull this off available on the box. I think it's just a matter of time before most DVR's have functionality like this.


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## dswallow (Dec 3, 2000)

I could see paying for HD versions of shows on channels with no HD counterpart; but that won't work well on the R15.


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## Billy Bob Boy (Jul 25, 2004)

ebonovic said:


> Can't say that I would pay $2.99 to see it earlier then everyone else... but hey... it's something...


LOL I wouldnt pay 99cents to watch something a week later either. (Thats why i have a tivo!!)


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## ping (Oct 3, 2005)

IMO, you need to offer additional value if you're going to charge for free TV. I'm not just talking about a commercial-free version. I've already got that. 

I might pay, for example, for a version of Battlestar Galactica with the director's audio track. I realize I can download the audio and do it myself, but I've never done it because it's sort of a pain, so I might pay for the convenience.

There may be other ideas I can't think of right now worth paying for. But seeing it early and/or without commercials just isn't worth paying per-episode for to me.


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## vigfoot (Dec 1, 2003)

Billy Bob Boy said:


> LOL I wouldnt pay 99cents to watch something a week later either. (Thats why i have a tivo!!)


boy, they really love us, don't they?!


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## ebonovic (Jul 24, 2001)

vigfoot said:


> boy, they really love us, don't they?!


Just take a quick gander at the Now Showing or Season Pass Alert forums.

There are enough "experts" that even miss a show, and an unscheduled conflict, power issues, what ever....

The $0.99 for a replay is not "so bad"... 
Sure... A good DVR setup the chances of using it are very limited but... I would rather pay $0.99 then having to jump through all the hoops to get "other" methods, and that translate to something I can see on my TV....

Still not sure I would bite on the $2.99 EACH SHOW to see it a few days earlier.
Maybe $2.99 a month, for ALL of them....... But... $3 to see it a few days earlier... nah.


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## dswallow (Dec 3, 2000)

$0.99 to see it earlier and $2.99 to see it later would seem to work better; someone might spend a little for the earlier showing, but if they missed it and need to watch the episode, it's gonna get bought (ignoring the free alternatives that exist for more techno-saavy users).


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## Kanyon71 (Feb 13, 2003)

I actually have tried the free way's and I thought the quality was horrible and it took forever to download an episode. I wish I had some decent way to get past episode of SG-1 and Atlantis as I am missing both of last weeks and also the first week of this years Atlantis. I would gladly pay $3.00 to get all of those episodes downloaded to either my R15 or my TiVo so I could watch them.


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## jrinck (Nov 24, 2004)

Why not just make the show available for download via the Internet?

Oh yeah, nobody wants to watch the show on a dinky screen, and no manufacturers as of yet understand the power of an Internet-connected DVR.

My bad.


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## dswallow (Dec 3, 2000)

jrinck said:


> Why not just make the show available for download via the Internet?
> 
> Oh yeah, nobody wants to watch the show on a dinky screen, and no manufacturers as of yet understand the power of an Internet-connected DVR.


There is at least one multichannel and on-demand XXX service delivered via internet to a set-top box.

And there's numerous DVD players that support DivX and Windows Media formats from the CD/DVD.


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## chudel (May 10, 2005)

Any idea if they plan to do the same with NFST? This could actually benefit me, if I could watch, say, the SuperBowl before everyone else does!











please - I really shouldn't have to put a smiley here.


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## jrinck (Nov 24, 2004)

dswallow said:


> There is at least one multichannel and on-demand XXX service delivered via internet to a set-top box.
> 
> And there's numerous DVD players that support DivX and Windows Media formats from the CD/DVD.


That's what's so cool about the porn industry. They always take the lead in utilizing new ways to deliver their content.

And I overlooked Akimbo, which essentially does what I mentioned, but they don't do it with "Network" content... yet.


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## TomK (May 22, 2001)

When is a la carte pricing coming? I don't ever watch FX and I'd be glad to get a cheaper bill to remove it from Directv. I can think of a few more channels as well that I'd happily remove.


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## ebonovic (Jul 24, 2001)

I don't think ALa Carte pricing is comming any time soon.

IIRC, the recent rulling was just against Cable-Cos.


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## jrinck (Nov 24, 2004)

A la carte would work great if each individual network was individually owned. But the problem is when one parent company owns a bunch of channels, some good, and some bad, and they force the DTVs and Comcasts to carry either all of them, or none of them. 

So don't blame DTV or Comcast on that, although they get to brag about how many channels they offer, even though many of them are crap.


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