Direct TV Set to Battle in the On-Demand Market

Direct TV will officially launch their "on-demand"The first method uses the end-users DVR and their
service in the second quarter, so it should be out byhigh-speed internet connection. The customer
the end of this month. How will the product compareconnects to their broadband provider, generally cable
with the true video-on-demand (VOD) productsor DSL. The customers download speed must be
provided by cable TV companies like Comcast?faster than 750 kbps, and should be higher to really
A window to look through is the beta testing thatuse the service effectively. Content is downloaded to
has been going on with Direct TV "On-Demand."the DVR, and then the programming can be
Ongoing testing by users has been happening sinceaccessed from there.
August 2007, and reviews have been split fairly evenThe primary obstacle here is that it is not really true
on the service. Some customer's have found theVideo-On-Demand. If a Direct TV customer wants to
video-on-demand service to be a great enhancement,watch an an on-demand program, he has wait for
while others have disappointed in the service so far.some of the content to download to the DVR
The original on-demand service that is available frombefore being able to start watching. Some beta
cable operators like Comcast and Time Warner offertesters have reported download times for an entire
the customer the flexibility to pick their remotemovie to be between one and four hours based on
control and watch shows at their convenience. Inthe customer's connection speed.
some ways on-demand is like a TiVo or a digitalThe second method Direct TV has formulated
video recorder, the end user has control on wheninvolves sending movies and other content directly to
they want to view the program.the customers DVR. The content would then be
The difference with on-demand however, is that thestored for subscribers where they can access it at a
cable company holds the programming for you ratherlater time.
than the customer recording it on their own device. AThis method certainly solves the download issues
centralized group of servers holds the programmingpreviously referenced, but brings up the issue of how
for cable customers to access via a programmingmuch pushed content will customers accept on their
menu. Cable companies have thus made the claimDVR?
that they have more high-definition programming.While DVR's generally have capacity to hold around
That claim is debatable, as they are measuring their50 hours of HD or 350 hours of standard definition
HD by the number of programs available, not thecontent, that is nowhere near the thousands of
number of channels. For example, Comcast's Projecthours of programming available via cable.
Infinity HD rollout promises 1000 HD choices by theTransmitting the content to the DVR will use up the
end of 2008. Cable companies have thus promotedcapacity, and customers are will be very protective
this instead of the actual number of HD channelsof their DVR space. Most Direct TV customers would
they have. While Direct TV currently has the leadrather use the space for content they have decided
with 95 national HD channels, cable companies haveto record, not what Direct TV wants them to watch.
between 20-60 channels depending on the companySo will Direct TV succeed in matching cable TV's
and region.on-demand offerings? Certainly time will give us a
So how will Direct TV compete in the on-demandbetter answer. Having to wait to receive what is
arena? The company has put into play two differentconsidered an on-demand content will not make most
delivery methods in order to reach their customersDirect TV customers happy.
with this service.