More News, Reaction Surfaces to DirecTV HD Plan

[Gregg Lengling]

More details were revealed Thursday about DirecTV's new local high-def endeavor, and one organization reacted to the news concerning the satellite TV company's effort to roll out thousands of local HD channels to consumers.

At Morgan Stanley's Media and Communications Conference Thursday, DirecTV Group President and CEO Chase Carey said the Ka-Band satellites supporting local HD services will be clustered around DirecTV's core orbital location at 101 degrees. Launches will begin next year wit two SpaceWay satellites.

The SpaceWay spacecraft will support delivery of about 500 local HD channels, plus other high def content and advanced services. Two other satellites will launch in 2006 and 2007, and will add another 1,000 local high def channels.

In Washington, D.C., the National Association of Broadcasters praised the DirecTV move to deliver the local HD programming. "Their leadership will bring consumers the best in local broadcasting in HDTV," the organization said.

In its statement, NAB also took aim at suggestions that satellite TV should be allowed to deliver a distant network HD broadcast feed to consumers that don't have access to local HD signals.

"We have always questioned the wisdom of carving out 'digital white areas' for satellite households that can be served by local broadcasters," the association said. "With this announcement, policymakers can plainly see that satellite TV providers are capable of delivering local-to-local HDTV to virtually every home in America."

Also, Arianespace said it won two launch contracts from DirecTV. The first contract will be for Spaceway 2, which will fly in April 2005. The second contract is for another satellite. Both payloads will fly the Ariane 5 launch vehicle from Arianespace's spaceport in Kourou, French Guiana.

Launch preparation for Spaceway 2 will be completed in a record-breaking seven months from contract signature to launch, Arianespace said.