News
DIRECTV: Two More HDTV Satellites Planned?
The satcaster reveals that it might launch yet another satellite after a scheduled March 2008 launch.
By Swanni
However, the satcaster revealed yesterday that a third satellite could be in the works to expand high-def capacity even further.
Chase Carey, DIRECTV's CEO, told Wall Street analysts in an investors call on the company's fourth quarter results that it's now spending money on developing the third satellite, called D12. (Next month's satellite is D11.)
"We do have D11 and D12 spending (in the company's capital expenditures)," he said. "We haven’t really made a final decision on the D12 launch plans so we don’t have those finalized yet."
DIRECTV's interest in expanding high-def capacity even further would be understandable with the satcaster disclosing yesterday that its new HD lineup helped reduce churn and attract new subscribers in the fourth quarter.
The satcaster increased its HD lineup from nine to roughly 90 channels in last year's fourth quarter. However, the company would like to increase capacity for future HD channel launches and more local high-def.
The D12 could also be used for variety of other bandwidth-heavy services.
Click to read Part Two of this article.
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Swanni (Phillip Swann) is
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