Free Republic

Just announced on shep's show.

You won't read phrases like "adult entertainment" in their annual reports, but American companies like General Motors and the Marriott Corporation have been profiting from the distribution of pornography to a hungry American public that snaps it up to the tune of $10 billion a year. This and other surprising facts are revealed in a double-length segment on the pornography industry reported by Steve Kroft on 60 Minutes, Sunday at 7 p.m. ET/PT. If it weren’t for the pay-per-view adult content offered on satellite television provider and General Motors subsidiary DirecTV, the company would lose money, according to entertainment industry...

  Today's the dayNFL Network launches tonight at 8 p.m. ET with its signature show NFL Total Access, hosted by Rich Eisen. The first 24-hour, year-round TV destination for NFL fans, NFL Network will have coaches, players and officials talking football. Tune in tonight to channel 212 on DIRECTV.www.nfl.comNFL Network

Smart cards lead to legal headachesSunday, September 28, 2003BY CRAIG MCCOOLKALAMAZOO GAZETTE DirecTV beams more than 200 television channels to millions of homes nationwide, but that's not all the company has been dishing out. It's been delivering subpoenas, too, hauling people into court and charging them with using mail-order electronics to steal TV programming. From Dowagiac to Drummond Island, some 390 Michigan residents are being asked to shell out thousands of dollars in civil damages, federal court records show. They are among nearly 12,000 people across the country snared in the company's aggressive campaign to thwart signal piracy. "They want...

Anyone who has DirecTV (or is thinking of getting it) and enjoys classical music/old films/documentaries, etc. PLEASE consider signing the petition on the Classic Arts webpage to have DirecTV bring on the Classic Arts Channel (also known as Classic MTV). This channel is so wonderful and the men who put it on do it for free, but many areas don't get it. In my area, you have to have cable and then it's only broadcast a few hours every day. On DirecTV it might run 24 hours! Thanks! http://www.classicartsshowcase.org/

In recent months the satellite TV giant has filed nearly 9,000 federal lawsuits against people who've purchased signal piracy devices. But some of those devices have legitimate uses, and innocent computer geeks are getting caught in the crackdown, writes Kevin Poulsen of SecurityFocus. In 2000, Texas-based physician Rod Sosa says he had the entrepreneurial notion that medical offices might pay a premium for a secure workstation -- one better suited for housing sensitive patient information than an off-the-shelf PC. A long time computer geek and tinkerer -- as well as a medical doctor and internist -- Sosa began working on...

Senators Go After Murdoch May23, 2003 On Friday, I rolled you some sound bites of Senators Barbara Boxer (D-CA), Fritz "Foghorn Leghorn" Hollings (D-SC) and Ol' Helmet Head Byron Dorgan (D-ND) grilling News Corp's Rupert Murdoch in Senate. The topic was supposed to be whether Murdoch ought to be able to buy DirecTV. The satellite company has no political bent, yet all the questions focused on the fact that Murdoch gives the conservative point of view airtime and print space! Boxer whined that someone on Fox News Channel called France and Germany "the Axis of Weasels." Hollings clucked to Murdoch,...

NEW YORK — Investors turned thumbs down Thursday on News Corp. CEO Rupert Murdoch's deal to control DirecTV parent Hughes Electronics, citing its high price, complex structure and potential booby traps. Murdoch agreed late Wednesday to pay $6.6 billion for 34% of Hughes, a subsidiary of General Motors. Once the deal is complete, News Corp. will sell those shares to its publicly traded Fox Entertainment subsidiary. That will give Fox control of the No. 1 satellite company, with 11.3 million subscribers, but the news sent Fox shares diving 17% to $22.60. News Corp. was down 6.5% to $25.45, and Hughes...

By Acquiring DirecTV, Murdoch Gets Upper HandBy DAVID D. KIRKPATRICK Rupert Murdoch's begging days are over. Six years ago, when Mr. Murdoch was starting the Fox News Channel, he was reduced to pleading with Time Warner Cable to carry it in New York, reportedly offering more than $100 million to the company and eventually enlisting Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani and Gov. George E. Pataki in a political battle to get Fox on the air. But with the agreement yesterday to acquire the satellite broadcaster DirecTV, Mr. Murdoch, chairman of the News Corporation, can transmit his own channels into homes across...

Rupert Murdoch's three-year wait for a controlling stake in El Segundo, Calif.-based DirecTV operator Hughes Electronics will likely come to an end as early as Wednesday afternoon, according to a New York Times report. It's with little surprise that Murdoch would be the victor in a race for control that started with three other competitors -- Englewood, Colo.-based Liberty Media, San Antonio-based SBC Communications, and New York-based Cablevision Systems Inc. SBC and Cablevision both bowed out of the race and Liberty Media joined forces with News Corp. when it bought a $500 million stake in the company and announced...

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Local telephone company SBC Communications Inc. has decided against bidding for Hughes Electronics Corp.'s DirecTV unit, CNBC reported on Tuesday. CNBC, citing unnamed sources familiar with the matter, said SBC had opted not to pursue a final bid for the satellite television operator. SBC had entered the bidding fray for DirecTV in February. Hughes is a majority-owned unit of General Motors Corp. SBC declined to comment on the report. Spokesmen for Hughes and GM were not immediately available. SBC shares were up nearly 7 percent following the report. Hughes shares were down more than 1...

Timing is everything, so one adage goes. And action speaks louder than words, says another. The conjunction of the SBC bid for Hughes' DirecTV satellite operation and Federal Communications Commission Chairman Michael Powell decision to delay a vote on new telecommunications' rules from this Thursday to Feb. 20 may be mere coincidence. Nevertheless the timing provides commissioners an opportunity to mull over how their actions may affect the competitive landscape for decades to come. Washington is a twitter that Powell's decision to delay a vote from today to Feb. 20 results from a bi-partisan compromise proposal by a fellow...

From Financial Times - SBC stock falls over DirecTV negotiations By Robert Clow and Peter Thal Larsen in New York Shares of SBC Communications fell 3 per cent during Monday afternoon trade in New York in the wake of news of its possible bid for DirecTV. SBC's stock, which closed at $25.18 last week before the mooted transaction involving General Motors' satellite business became public, was down 89 cents at $24.29. If a bid is made, which is still not certain, it would be designed to create a company with a bundle of local, long-distance, wireless, broadband and entertainment services....

NEW YORK -- EchoStar Communications Corp. Chairman Charles Ergen, recently blocked by federal regulators from acquiring his main rival in the U.S. satellite-television market, has been talking with long-standing adversary Rupert Murdoch as well as Liberty Media Corp. about possibly selling his company, industry officials familiar with the contacts told The Wall Street Journal. There haven't been any formal negotiations, Mr. Ergen isn't commenting on his motives and it isn't clear what response these preliminary feelers have sparked. EchoStar currently has a market capitalization of $12.4 billion and debt of about $5.7 billion. The surprising twist could indicate that...

EL SEGUNDO, Calif. -- Hughes Electronics Corp.'s DirecTV Broadband unit will close its high-speed Internet service business in an effort to strengthen profitability and efficiency. Hughes, which provides digital television, entertainment and broadband services under the DirecTV name, on Friday said the action will result in a fourth-quarter charge of between $100 million and $150 million to earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization, or Ebitda. General Motors Corp.'s Hughes unit acquired Cupertino, Calif.-based DirecTV Broadband in April 2001 and currently serves 160,000 customers with its DirecTV DSL service. The company reiterated its full-year guidance, excluding items. In October,...

In the aftermath of its failed merger with Echostar, Hughes Electronics says it is looking to get out of its DirecWay satellite Internet service. "Satellite delivered Internet is a costly business model and we would only be able to continue in this business if the merger had gone through," said George Jamison, Hughes spokesman. He noted that DirecWay "loses money," and that while strategic decisions concerning the future of the DirecWay service have not been made, they "will in the not-so-distant future." "The challenge for DirecWay is the upfront hardware costs and the monthly service charges make it tough...

NEW YORK -- The NFL extended its agreement with DirecTV for five years Wednesday, giving the satellite service exclusive rights to the league's subscription package in a deal worth $2 billion. The NFL's average take will rise to $400 million, more than three times the $130 million it is getting from DirecTV this season under an expiring five-year contract, an industry source close to the negotiations told The Associated Press on condition of anonymity. Included in the agreement, which runs from 2003-07, is the launching of a 24-hour NFL Channel on DirecTV as early as next year. DirecTV has shown...

DETROIT - Hughes Electronics Corp. of El Segundo, Calif., and EchoStar Communications Corp. terminated their proposed merger of the nation's two biggest satellite television operations, the companies announced Tuesday. The government had taken steps to block the deal, and the companies said they called it off because it couldn't be completed within the time allowed. Hughes owns DirecTV, while EchoStar runs the Dish Network. The planned merger would have created a single powerhouse satellite TV service with 18 million subscribers. As part of the termination settlement, EchoStar has paid Hughes $600 million in cash, and Hughes, a General Motors...

NEW YORK (Variety) - Calling the proposed combination of ABC News and CNN "a two-headed monster," Fox Entertainment and News Corp. chairman Rupert Murdoch dismissed the news channel competition and waxed confidently to shareholders and the press Thursday about his two companies' prospects for the coming year. "A CNN-ABC merger would be great" Murdoch told a press conference after the Fox shareholder annual meeting in New York on Thursday. The confident chief ventured that a complicated combination of CNN and ABC News would weaken both. "It would be very difficult to execute without losing their identify. It commoditizes their product...

WASHINGTON, Oct 31, 2002 (AP WorldStream via COMTEX) -- The proposed merger of EchoStar Communications Corp. and Hughes Electronics Corp., creating the nation's largest subscriber television company, could untangle in a messy and expensive breakup following the government's suit to scuttle the deal. The companies issued statements on Thursday that they were considering their options to salvage the $22.6 billion deal. The government said the deal would eliminate competition between the two largest satellite television companies and hurt consumers. Only last week EchoStar offered to give rival Cablevision Systems Corp. a satellite frequency that would allow the company to...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - EchoStar Communications Corp. was dealt a potentially fatal blow on Thursday in its $16.2 billion bid to acquire rival satellite television provider Hughes Electronics when U.S. communications regulators moved to block the deal. The Federal Communications Commission unanimously voted to refer the deal to an administrative law judge for review -- a process that could take months -- and gave little hope that any remedies proposed by the companies would resolve their concerns. "Based on the record, the commission cannot find that this merger is in the public interest," FCC Chairman Michael Powell said at a...

Federal regulators are poised to block EchoStar Communications Corp.'s $18 billion acquisition of rival Hughes Electronics Corp. in a vote that could take place as early as Monday, people familiar with the matter told The Wall Street Journal. Barring a major, last-minute concession from the two satellite-television providers -- a prospect that many industry officials over the weekend said still was possible -- at least three of the four members of the Federal Communications Commission are set to cast votes rejecting the deal, according to people knowledgeable about the matter. FCC Chairman Michael Powell is among those opposing the...

THE OUTDOOR CHANNEL SIGNS AFFILIATION AGREEMENT WITH DIRECTV Temecula and El Segundo, CA Sep 4, 2002   Management of The Outdoor Channel, Inc. a majority-owned subsidiary of Global Outdoors, Inc. (OTC; GLRS) announced today an affiliation agreement with DIRECTV, Inc., provider of the nation's leading satellite television service, for distribution of The Outdoor Channel. The outdoor lifestyle network will be offered as part of the DIRECTV SPORTS Pack. The Outdoor Channel will launch on Oct. 1, 2002 and provide DIRECTV customers with quality programming designed to educate and entertain sportsmen of all skill levels. The programs are designed to appeal to "traditional...

Media mogul Rupert Murdoch of News Corp. told investors at the Goldman Sachs Media Conference he would be "interested" in DirecTV if it became available again. The satellite TV provider is owned by General Motors and is currently pursuing a merger with EchoStar, which is seeking regulatory approval to buy the company. "Naturally we are watching what is happening, should GMH come around again, we would look at it," Murdoch said. "But we would would look very carefully." Shares of Hughes were unchanged at $9.15 per share in early NYSE action on Tuesday. EchoStar fell 47 cents to $20.52.

What happens when the number two player in an industry gobbles up its largest rival? Well, if you are talking about satellite TV provider EchoStar's proposed $26 billion merger with DirecTV, we could see greater competition in telecommunications, more consumer choice and a faster roll-out of new technology. Rest of article.

DirecTV filed a lawsuit against WFAN radio personality Sid Rosenberg alleging that he has used a hacked access card to receive programming from the satellite TV service. On March 11, while speaking with Don Imus on the "Imus in the Morning" program, Rosenberg said he has used an illegally modified access card to steal DirecTV programming. After encouraging Imus to cease paying DirecTV for service and begin using a hacked access card, Rosenberg said, "You don't have to pay DirecTV if you get the card zapped." In response, Imus said, "Well, that's dishonest ... it's stealing." However, throughout the program,...