DirecTV Thoughts

[harleyman134]

Some of you may or may not know that Directv has plans to phase out their satellite service by 2020. I'm guessing they will deliver their content via internet. I'm not sure how people like me are going to handle this change. With their new Directv Now service I'm considering using this for my cable content and hopefully be able to pick up the Networks via OTA. Has anyone else though about what they will do when Directv ends their satellite service?

[Mr JP]

Wow I did not know that. Thank you for sharing that info.
Thanks
JP

[miniceptor86]

Living in rural Iowa the loss of satellite service will mean I'll only have over the air TV. Unless we get fiber optic, we meaning the two families at the literal end of the road. Not thinking the local telephone company will be in a big rush to get that done.

We subscribed to Direct TV within a week after our REC became a provider back in the early nineties I'm thinking. Remember Speedvision? Most of its programming then was old car commercials and promos.

[Mike and Cha]

We have Direct TV and haven't heard of this yet, but who knows tings change quickly today. We have the "Smart TV" Blu Ray DVD players, which you can add downloads for different Apps. I would bet if it's going to be over the internet you will be able to download a Direct TV APP, much like Net Flix and use it that way.

[select55]

AT+T own them my neighbour gets over a 100 channels of Direct HD Tv using a apple decoder and his IPhone through AT+T
introductory offer at 35$ and goes to $60
must have a cell phone plan with AT+T no extra data charges

[Jim T.]

Originally Posted by harleyman134

Some of you may or may not know that Directv has plans to phase out their satellite service by 2020. I'm guessing they will deliver their content via internet. I'm not sure how people like me are going to handle this change. With their new Directv Now service I'm considering using this for my cable content and hopefully be able to pick up the Networks via OTA. Has anyone else though about what they will do when Directv ends their satellite service?

Will you verify where you read this and report back?

[Ron Postma]

DirecTV is planning satellite launches in 2018. The satellites have a 14 year life. I would not worry before it happens. They know they have millions of subscribers who only get TV through their satellites. I am sure we will have many years with them. AT&T has to pay off the billions they paid for them, and by the time the satellites are ready to replace there will be something better to use.

[RJOL]

I haven't used my satellite for awhile, but aren't the satellite dishes set up to receive both Dish or Direct TV through toggle switches at the dish?

[docj]

Originally Posted by harleyman134

Some of you may or may not know that Directv has plans to phase out their satellite service by 2020.

With all due respect this is a totally exaggerated rumor that has been sweeping these forums despite many efforts to inject some sanity.

It appears to have started with a single vendor's claim in April that SD service would get phased out by 2019 when the 101 satellite reaches end of service life. There was never a confirmation of this by DirecTV but this claim went viral.

The situation got worse when the CEO of AT&T (which owns DirecTV) made a speech in which he stated that the future of DirecTV was in delivering content via the internet. He NEVER said that satellite service would end by a specific date and he did say that satellite service would be needed by "some" customers for an (undefined) transition period.

Nevertheless, RVers on this and other forums have been running around like Chicken Little, waiting for the satellites to fall out of the sky. DirecTV has millions of customers, many of whom live in areas in which high speed internet is a long way from coming to their doors. No doubt, those of us who need satellite service will end up paying more for it, but I seriously doubt that anyone on this forum will lose satellite service before they are too old to drive an RV!

[harleyman134]

Originally Posted by Jim T.

Will you verify where you read this and report back?

I've attached a link to the article I pulled this quote from. I've also seen this on several other news articles about ATT

"But citing people familiar with the plans, Bloomberg reported last month that the company wants to phase out satellite dishes and set-top boxes in favor of streaming TV within three to five years"

http://www.bizjournals.com/dallas/bl...html?ana=yahoo

[Arizona Lizards]

There Is a thread on this over in the technology forum. See:
http://www.irv2.com/forums/f53/direc...ay-310195.html

[harleyman134]

Docj, I didn't mean to stir up a hornet nest, my thoughts were genuine and I didn't know they have been discussed elsewhere on this forum. A little background. I still have the original tv in my motorhome because:
A My sat dish does not pick up the HD sat's, I even have a Standard Def (SD) set top box. I do have a legacy Directv account and receive the east coast network feed out of new York.
B Even in a campground with cable I only receive a SD signal
C With the limited number of OTA channels available I didn't want to go thru the hassle of changing the tv for a hand for of channels

I signed up for the new Directv Now the first day it came out. I get 100 cable channels in HD for $35/month and I'm grandfathered into this plan as long as I keep it active. I also got an apple tv 4 by prepaying 3 months in advance. I also have ATT cell service and can stream this service with my phone and hotspot without it counting against my data plan. This service also lets you stream to two devices at the same time. With the few limitations this seems like a perfect solution for my motorhome thus nudging me to upgrade the TV's in my motorhome. The limitations as I see them are lack of a cell signal while on the road or the ability to get an OTA signal in a campground.

Like I said my thoughts were genuine and I was wanting to get the thoughts of my fellow RV'ers with the knowledge they will be facing a similar situation in the future with the same limitations.

[docj]

Originally Posted by harleyman134

I've attached a link to the article I pulled this quote from. I've also seen this on several other news articles about ATT

"But citing people familiar with the plans, Bloomberg reported last month that the company wants to phase out satellite dishes and set-top boxes in favor of streaming TV within three to five years"

http://www.bizjournals.com/dallas/bl...html?ana=yahoo

And the gist of those articles is that "AT&T Said to Plan Web Streaming as Primary TV Platform by 2020". There's a big difference between streaming as the "primary platform" and the "only platform." https://www.bloomberg.com/news/artic...atform-by-2020

Sure, when the 5G cellular network exists most people will have the ability to stream video on their phones, but that network doesn't yet exist. The DirecTV Now service that AT&T unveiled last week surely isn't going to move all that many viewers off of satellite IMO.

I agree that someday satellite service will be unnecessary, but IMO the chances of AT&T eliminating satellites by 2020 is somewhere between small and nil.

[buddy110]

There is no truth to this. None