Direct TV Gets Portable + New Launches from Direct TV for 2006
 

AMA portable-media-player service called “Direct TV 2Go” and a new original half-hour music program are on Direct TV Inc.’s list of new products and services to show off at the 2006 International Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.

The direct-broadcast satellite provider will also demonstrate a new HD digital-video recorder; discuss plans for a video-game “tournament” that it will produce featuring in-game camera angles; and show off new LCD TV screens with integrated Direct TV receivers (although when those sets might be sold to the public is “still being determined”).

News Corp.-controlled Direct TV emphasized “an entirely new wave of programming” on its 15 million-subscriber platform in a press release previewing what it will show off at CES.

CEO Chase Carey -- whose company has scheduled a press conference for Thursday at the show -- was also quoted in the release as saying that Direct TV was continuing to “innovate, delivering new and expanded services that will provide the best television-viewing experience when, where and how our customers want it."

The Direct TV 2Go service -- to be launched this year -- would transfer programming content from the “Direct TV Plus DVR” to portable media players that will use specific audio and video formats and display content in a separate menu area with a Direct TV- branded user interface.

Rival satellite-TV player EchoStar Communications Corp.’s Dish Network already has a portable product in the market, called “PocketDish.”

Direct TV said the “cornerstone” of its original-programming moves is CD USA, starting Jan. 21, a weekly half-hour show of live music performances in standard-definition and HD and other features, such as interviews, related to the topic.

Other programming enhancements on tap, for launch at unspecified times in 2006:

• The “Massive Gaming League,” a video-game tournament covered as a sporting event, “complete with producer, director and technical crew [and with] stories of the competitors told via interviews and features, complemented with coverage of their exploits in actual competition”;

• A new “mix channel” that lets customers with interactive-enabled receivers watch “March Madness” college-basketball fare on up to six live channels on one screen; and

• A three-hour block of programming aimed at helping singles meet other singles. This last feature will be called “Direct Date.”

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