DirecTV Sees Ultra HDTV as Key Strategic Advantage for Future

By Rob Scott
March 19, 2012

DirecTV announced this week that it plans to adopt Ultra HDTV in the future and is already working on its spectrum needs.
According to Philip Goswitz, SVP Space and Communications R&D: “At DirecTV we see a couple of things happening. First, our subscribers are migrating away from Ku-band, and upgrading themselves to Ka-band and its HDTV services. In four or five years, our Ku-band [transmissions] could end. We are also developing the so-called Reverse Band for DBS services, and these are on our Road Map for future international services. 4000-line is exciting to us because of its image quality, and the potential for glasses-free 3D.”
Advanced Television reports that Japan’s introduction of Ultra HDTV is slated for 2020 and will use Ka-band. DirecTV is already using Ka-band in North America.
“But Ka-band doesn’t just mean broadband. To us it means broadcasting. The truth is that as our Ku-band transmissions end, then increasingly every dollar in revenue is attributable to Ka-band. We’ll be entirely Ka-band in about five years. Currently, of our total $27 billion in annual revenues, about $20 billion comes from Ka-band,” said Goswitz.

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