(return to home page) WHO WE ARE About the company E-mail us! Address and phone numbers OUR PRODUCTS Satellite Business News FaxUPDATE Trade Show Dailies Trade Show Videos ONLINE NEWS & INFORMATION Changing Channels Digital TV Beat Scanning the Skies Industry Stats A Look Back: Satellite TV History SUBSCRIPTION INFORMATION Sign up for the magazine and the fax Get back issues Read past show news ADVERTISING INFORMATION Ads in the magazine Ads in the fax Trade Show Products Online ads: The latest, hippest way to get your name out there! About our readers

2000 Consumer Electronics Show READ ALL ABOUT IT! DirecTv Holiday Tally Trumps EchoStar Both DBS services posted record subscriber acquisitions last month, but the holiday selling season went much more merrily for DirecTv. DirecTv added 225,000 net new subscribers last month, significantly outpacing EchoStar’s 160,000 net new subscribers during the same period. DirecTv’s monthly record beat its previous high-water mark of 183,000 set in December 1998. DirecTv added 1.6 million net new subscribers in 1999, a 39 percent improvement over 1998’s 1.157 million additions. The company now has approximately 6.33 million high-power subscribers. DirecTv also said it converted about 89,000 medium-power Primestar customers to DirecTv last month. DirecTV President Eddy Hartenstein said yesterday the company hopes to convert almost all of the remaining 1.4 Primestar subscribers to DirecTv’s high-power service by the end of the year. EchoStar signed up 1.47 million net new subscribers in 1998, a 63 percent increase over its total for 1998. EchoStar now has approximately 3.41 million subscribers, it said. EchoStar also said it would no longer announce monthly subscriber results, a move which often is interpreted as a sign a company is not optimistic about its short-term prospects. Manufacturers Make Moves to Combine DirecTv, HDTV Keeping with the theme of digital convergence at this year's Consumer Electronics Show, several of DirecTv’s reception equipment manufacturers announced plans to release digital televisions with integrated DirecTv receivers and/or DirecTv receivers capable of receiving off-air digital signals. The combination DirecTv receiver/digital TVs each are designed around the DirecTv Plus platform that uses an 18-by-24-inch satellite dish capable of receiving signals from more than one of DirecTv’s orbital positions. Thomson Multimedia touted several new digital TV models with built-in DirecTv Plus receivers. The new models, set for mid-year delivery, include 34-inch and 38-inch high-definition sets carrying suggested retail prices of $3499 and $3999, respectively. Those prices represent approximately 50 percent price drops from previous Thomson HDTV models. “We’re confident that when consumers see HDTV sets at these price points, they’ll respond with enthusiasm," Thomson Senior Vice President-Americas Mike O'Hara said. The company also plans to introduce 61-inch and 65-inch later this year with built-in DirecTv capability, though pricing has not been determined, he said. Thomson also talked about its $15 million investment in Geocast Network Systems, which plans to deliver personalized streaming video and data services through a variety of distribution methods, including satellite. Thomson plans to build a receiver for the service priced at under $300 that will store information on a hard disk with no monthly fee. Geocast plans to begin testing its service later this year, with a wider consumer rollout slated for next year, spokeswoman Leslie Kesselring said. CONTINUED TURN THE PAGE OTHER ISSUES TO LOOK FOR: Friday, Jan. 7, 2000 Saturday, Jan. 8, 2000 Sunday, Jan. 9, 2000   Please direct questions about this site to general.mail@satbiznews.com q 2000 Satellite Business News Inc. All rights reserved.