[Steve615]

The presentation will occur on Thursday,Sept. 18,2008 at 11 AM ET.
The presentation will include an update and outlook on the DirecTV businesses.
Chase Carey,President & CEO of DirecTV,is expected to be the speaker at this presentation.

http://investor.directv.com/releasedetail.cfm?ReleaseID=334467

 

[Steve615]

A live webcast of the presentation will be available at :

http://www.directv.com/investor

 

[Drew2k]

Just a reminder ... the conference call is tomorrow!

 

[bonscott87]

Let's get this party started!

I'll hopefully be able to blog this if I don't get interrupted by work.

 

[bonscott87]

Talking about financials a bit and how they will continue to concentrate on video as the cornerstone of their business. Lot of the same stuff from their last quarterly results call, nothing much new.

 

[bonscott87]

HD and DVRs, especially HD will continue to become a mainstream product and continue top line growth. Will keep going over the next few years, not even halfway where they think they will be.

VOD is a really long term growth strategy but just starting out.

 

[bonscott87]

What could they do better?

Service at the top of the list. (No kidding)
While they are the best with who they compete with they are no where near where they should be.

 

[bonscott87]

Not all that effected by the economy since TV is something people hang on to in tough times. Also they have looked to get the "high quality" customer which are less effected.

 

[bonscott87]

LOL. Comcast has changed their tune from we have "1000s" of HD choices to 30-40 HD channels "is enough". (I haven't seen that ad yet but I'll look at it).

Our channels are actually channels. We don't count 2 games a week as a channel.

 

[BudShark]

What happened to our streaming bonscott blog? Is it really that boring and nothing to report?

Nevermind: concurrent typing...

 

[beakor]

LOL. Comcast has changed their tune from we have "1000s" of HD choices to 30-40 HD channels "is enough". (I haven't seen that ad yet but I'll look at it).

Our channels are actually channels. We don't count 2 games a week as a channel.

He also said pay per views werent counted as total hd counts

 

[bonscott87]

What happened to our streaming bonscott blog? Is it really that boring and nothing to report?

Nevermind: concurrent typing...

LOL. Well, I've been interrupted a couple times with work, how dare they.

But also they've been talking about AT&T for like 10 minutes. Yawwwwwnnnnn. :hurah:

 

[bonscott87]

Talking about hurricane stuff. Just they have to fix stuff.

 

[bonscott87]

Question on programming. Let's say it's 2010 and gross ads are down and Sunday Ticket is expiring, how important is it renewing Sunday Ticket?

They have ST until 2011. They pay a lot and it's a key part of their business. He says around 2 million subs out of 17 million but it's not like it's half their subs.
They certainly would like to keep it exclusive but they aren't a one trick pony either so it has to be right.

They have a great relationship with the NFL and they like how DirecTV has enhanced it with things like Redzone and such.

He feels they will continue to have a good relationship and the NFL likes the status quo but you never know what the future holds. All speculation now since it's so far away.

 

[bonscott87]

Q. If they were outbid for Sunday Ticket, how would they replace it.

A. DirecTV has put themselves out there as the sports leader, not just the NFL. Things like the US Open, MLB enhancements and they have more HD then anyone else.
He thinks the question is not really being outbid but more of exclusive vs. non exclusive.
NFL seems to like the balance between viewers of broadcast and ST availability (which I've always argued) but again you never know what the future may hold.

 

[irish316]

How many times can Chase Carey think out loud? Umm...umm...and umm... This guy is not very well spoken at all.

 

[bonscott87]

Broadband. Trying to help customers find broadband that works well with DirecTV. Not so much trying to own it ourselves but to help customers.

 

[Lee L]

Well, he really does have to be extremely carefull in what he says. One slip and the street could pound their sock into oblivion or drive it up to unrealistic levels.

 

[bonscott87]

It's over. I was sure they would be asked about Tivo but I guess the financial community didn't think it was that big a deal. Either that or Chase just spent more time rambling then anything else.

 

[rahlquist]

It's over. I was sure they would be asked about Tivo but I guess the financial community didn't think it was that big a deal. Either that or Chase just spent more time rambling then anything else.

Yeah was kinda hoping someone would let something slip on Tivo so we could have another 1300 post thread