Free DirecTV Preview Weekend for Starz!

[Gregg Lengling]

DirecTV and Starz Encore Group are offering a free Starz preview weekend to all DirecTV customers beginning today through Sunday. Actor Billy Boyd, who starred as Pippin in the "Lord of the Rings" trilogy, will host the event. The free preview consists of 12 channels of the Starz Super Pak, the companies said.

DirecTV Enhances Sunday Ticket - DirecTV has interactive features for its delivery of NFL Sunday Ticket. The "Enhanced Games" offering provides four additional game channels in which NFL Sunday Ticket customers can watch a game and see real-time scores, red zone alerts and time clocks from other games, all on one screen in an "L-wrap" format. On Monday mornings, customers equipped with a DirecTV DVR or high-def DVR receiver will continue to get highlights of NFL games automatically delivered to the digital recorder. And NFL Sunday Ticket GameTracker gives customers alerts via computer when games heat up, allowing fans to tune to the right game for key moments.

DirecTV also announced Thursday that it was honored with a 2004 Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Achievement in Interactive Television by the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences for its NFL Sunday Ticket enhanced offerings. This is the first Primetime Emmy Award DirecTV has received for its interactive services.

Madden Joins Sirius - Sirius announced this week that Monday Night Football analyst and former NFL head coach John Madden has signed on with Sirius NFL Radio, where he will serve as commentator on a Sunday pre-game program, The Stadium Tailgate Show. The program can be heard each Sunday prior to Sirius NFL Sunday Drive, giving subscribers a full slate of live radio game broadcasts from around the NFL.