By Todd Spangler -- Multichannel News, 9/24/2009 6:07:38 PM EDT
Cablevision Systems has filed a request with the Federal Communications Commission seeking an exemption to the agency's rules prohibiting the encryption of basic broadcast channels, arguing that scrambling the full digital TV lineup would cut costs and deter signal theft.

According to the operator's filing, last year it performed more than 1 million truck rolls associated with physically activating or deactivating service using drops, steps it must take to prevent against unauthorized distribution because the programming is available "in the clear."

"Encryption of broadcast basic would allow Cablevision to keep its plant ‘hot,' to perform connections and disconnections remotely, and thereby eliminate many truck rolls and service appointments for new and discontinuing customers," Cablevision said.

Cablevision asked for a waiver covering its New York City franchise areas.

Spotted here

Mike Reynolds -- Multichannel News, 3/23/2009 5:08:52 PM MT

The National Football League has reached a four-year contract extension with DirecTV to remain the TV home of the Sunday Ticket package through 2014.
Announced Monday during the NFL owners meeting in Dana Point, Calif., the pay-per-view pact, according to sources familiar with the negotiations, is valued at about $1 billion annually from 2011-2014.

WASHINGTON -(Dow Jones)- A decades-old complex network of cable and satellite copyright licenses for paid TV will get a second look in Congress this year, causing lobby shops throughout the industry to gear up their war rooms.

A small portion of the license regime, governing distant channels offered by satellite TV, expires in December.

By R. Thomas Umstead -- Multichannel News, 7/29/2008 5:00:00 PM
DirecTV this Friday will launch foreign-film on demand network Eurocinema as part of its DirecTV-on-demand platform.

Satellite Today 07-21-08 DirecTV taken on-orbit delivery of the DirecTV 11 satellite, spacecraft manufacturer Boeing Co. announced July 21.
DirecTV plans to use the satellite, placed in orbit in March by Sea Launch, to expand its line-up of high-definition services up to 150 national and local channels in at least 100 markets by this fall.

»www.satellitetoday.com/st/headli···09.html

[Satellite Today 07-16-08] Sea Launch launched the EchoStar 11 broadcast satellite, the company’s fourth mission of the year, Sea Launch announced July 16.


Space Systems/Loral (SS/L) manufactured the satellite, which will be placed at 110° West to support the expansion of Dish Network’s capacity throughout the United States.


The satellite deployed its solar arrays and is performing post-launch maneuvers on schedule, SS/L announced.

»www.satellitetoday.com/commercia···682.html

[Satellite Today 07-17-08] Dish Network’s EchoStar 2 satellite “experienced a substantial failure that appears to have rendered the satellite a total loss,” Dish said in a July 14 filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

Last Update: 7/04 7:53 pm

A Colerain Township lawmaker has proposed legislation to end a sales tax that satellite TV customers pay in Ohio.

Republican Louis Blessing introduced the bill in the Ohio house this week.

House Bill 599 would eliminate the sales tax that satellite TV customers have been paying since 2003.

If it's approved, the move would save the average customer an estimated $43 per year.

»www.wcpo.com/news/local/story.as···9ea0730

Broadcasting & Cable

Satellite companies gained a victory Thursday when the Federal Communications Commission voted to allow them to phase in a requirement that they carry all HD signals in any market where they carry any after the Feb. 17, 2009

»www.broadcastingcable.com/Commun···696.html, switch to digital TV by all full-power TV stations.

By Sarah Rabil

Feb. 13 (Bloomberg) -- DirecTV Group Inc., the largest U.S.

DirecTV will be publicly launching the ability to remotely schedule DVR Recordings on or about January 17th. This is a 'soft launch' - meaning that you will have the capability to do this when it becomes available.

Best Buy Inc.'s chief executive said Tuesday that he is "very nervous" about being able to supply customers with the millions of digital TV converter boxes needed ahead of the shutdown of most analog TV transmissions in 13 months.

"I think it's one of the biggest risks our industry has," vice chairman and CEO Brad Anderson told an industry audience at the International Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.

More here: »apnews.myway.com//article/200801···8G0.html

Cable rapped for falling behind in HD arms race as In Demand steps up and DirecTV charges more for HD channels.

By Shirley Brady

The race betweeen cable and satellite TV operators to roll out high-definition channels is heating up, and focusing, on sports networks.

Case in point: DirecTV is offering hockey games in HD to its NHL Center Ice subscribers this season and is slated to launch the NHL Network this month, while (as of yesterday) Dish Network said it will launch NHL Network HD, which lets hockey fans follow the action (not to mention the puck) in all its high-def glory.

Cable operators, meanwhile, are also promising to offer the NHL Network in HD this hockey season, but so far it's the league's standard def channel this is slated to start rolling out this month on systems operated by Comcast, Time Warner Cable, Cox Communications and Cablevision.

Original article here

GRANT ROBERTSON | October 20, 2007

Cable and satellite carriers are mounting a push to import foreign channels such as the USA Network, which are now blocked from coming into Canada because they would compete too closely with domestic broadcasters.

In a submission to federal broadcast regulators yesterday, Rogers Communications Inc.

Friday, 21 September 2007

While some people continue to watch only broadcast television, the majority of Americans have cable TV or satellite TV at their houses.
Why the need for cable or satellite?

Find out here

Found in the massive D10 thread on DBSTALK.COM, DirecTV yesterday filed for a temporary 60-day license to operate DirecTV10 at the 102.775 WL location.

According to the filing/request, they are ahead of schedule and want to "light her up" sooner than proposed in their earlier filings.

Full text of the request at:
FCC Documents

DirecTV10 Thread at DBSTALK

Dan Tynan, PC World
Wednesday, May 23, 2007 12:00 PM PDT

For years you've probably paid about $6 per month to your cable company for a set-top box that lets you surf between Cops on Fox and Weeds on Showtime. You may hate the remote and the interactive program guide, but to get the shows you've had to take whatever box the cable company has given you. Thanks to a Federal Communications Commission order, that may soon change.

More here: »www.pcworld.com/article/132158-1···l_dnxnws

Jessica Simpson has been legally barred from saying DirecTV's high-definition channels look any better than those on cable.

Now, Time Warner Cable wants to stop Back to the Future actor Christopher Lloyd from claiming the direct-broadcast satellite operator can offer "more HD capacity than cable."

The No. 2 cable company upgraded its legal strategy last week, after a federal judge granted its request for a preliminary injunction blocking DirecTV ads in Time Warner markets that claim the satellite carrier provides superior HD quality. Those included two TV spots, one featuring actress/singer Simpson and another with ex- Star Trek front man William Shatner, with the tagline, "For an HD picture that can't be beat, get DirecTV."

More here: »hd.broadcastnewsroom.com/article···d=105172

DirecTV sealed a seven-year $700 million exclusive deal with Major League Baseball for "Extra Innings", the out-of-market game package. If you aren't already a DirecTV subscriber, and don't plan on becoming one, you can still buy the internet package and watch games on MLB.com. Read more at NYTimes.com...

»www.nytimes.com/2007/03/03/sport···ttv.html

LAS VEGAS (Reuters) - Top U.S. satellite TV operator DirecTV Group Inc.