Titles from Warner Bros., Fox, Universal and will be available 60 days after their theatrical release for $29.99; Comcast and VUDU will begin a similar service.
DirecTV is in advanced talks to be Hollywood’s first partner for early video-on-demand, a plan that is putting it in the cross hairs of the nation’s top theater chains. Consumers would pay about $30 to rent a movie via the Internet or cable 60 days after it opened in theaters and at least a month before it would become available on DVD.
With the FCC expected to discuss retransmission consent reform at its scheduled March 3 open meeting, DirecTV Chairman-CEO Mike White told analysts Wednesday he is hopeful change will come.
DirecTV Profit Beats Street; Shares Rise
Exclusives
DirecTV Losing Fox Affils In Four Markets
Following a breakdown in retrans renewal negotiations with Northwest Broadcasting, DirecTV will be dropping at midnight the Northwest Fox affiliates in Yakima and Spokane, both Washington; KMVU Medford, Ore.; and Binghamton, N.Y. DirecTV CEO Mike White claims Northwest is asking for a 600% increase in fees.
Hearst Television announced Thursday afternoon that a new carriage agreement was reached Wednesday with DirecTV. Terms of the agreement were not disclosed. Hearst’s 29 stations have been notifying viewers for three weeks that negotiations were underway with DirecTV for renewal of the existing carriage agreement that expires Dec. 31.
DirecTV has an agreement with Starcom MediaVest Group, which plans to sell household-addressable ads for the No. 1 satellite TV operator that will be delivered to 10 million subscribers with DVRs, based on demographic data and other criteria.
DirecTV has resolved charges of misleading advertising and has agreed to pay state governments $13.25 million in addition to reimbursing customers who file claims. Wednesday’s settlement ended complaints brought by attorneys general in all 50 states.
Hearst Warns Of DirecTV Blackout
Hearst Television Inc., parent company 29 TV stations around the country, is warning viewers that the station’s signal could go dark for DirecTV subscribers on Jan. 1. Hearst delivered an e-mail to local media outlets Saturday laying out the latest in a series of publicly contested transmission-rights battles.
DirecTV’s prices are going up, thanks to higher programming costs. With the satellite operator paying more to carry local stations and sports networks, customers will bear some of the brunt, a company executive said Tuesday.
DirecTV executives said Thursday that they will look to fight continued program fee increases, in part by dropping smaller, less popular channels as the company recently did with Comcast’s G4 network. They also discuss other key issues such as possible a la carte pricing, an emerging premium VOD release window for movies and the future of retransmission consent payments to broadcasters.
DirecTV Group expects to add significantly in excess of 200,000 net new subscribers in the United States in the current quarter, Chief Executive Mike White said today. The company is on course to have more than 19.1 million subs by year-end, closing in on Comcast Corp’s shrinking leadership in the U.S. pay TV sector, White said at DirecTV’s Investor Day.
