DIRECTV History
The Evolution of DIRECTV into The Best Satellite TV Provider
Early Days, Becoming DIRECTV
DIRECTV has a long history filled with innovation and changing television viewing habits. The
company, which is an American direct broadcast satellite provider, was first founded in
December of 1985.
Hughes Communications, Inc., a company that began as a medical research company as Howard
Hughes Medical Institute, and later developed into numerous subsidiaries including Hughes
Communications, was given 27 frequencies in 1981, while competitor United States Satellite
Broadcasting was given five by the FCC. Over time, the technology improved significantly and
led to the development of high powered satellites. The development of digital compression
standards, also known as MPEG-2, also developed and allows for multiple digital television
channels to come through each frequency.
In 1990, the company launched DIRECTV as a separate
division of Hughes Communications. Its name implies the direct broadcast satellite
television service it was providing to its customers. After this point, Hughes
Communications further developed the product offered by turning to Thomson Consumer
Electronics to create a digital satellite system that would be able to receive 175 channels
using just a small 18 inch dish. The innovative dishes were smaller and lighter receivers
and they used military technology called Global Broadcast System.
The company continued to develop its services and products, merged with other companies, and
formed new opportunities. In 2004, the company split with Hughes. On April 22, 2005, the
company officially broke from its Hughes Network Systems into a separate company. At this
point, the company was solely a satellite television service.
DIRECTV Expansions and Acquisitions
The company would go on to acquire ReplayTV in 2007 and Connect Television Inc, in 2009. In
2013, DIRECTV purchased LifeShield, a company that produces wireless home security systems.
The company plans to continue to expand into this market as a connection to its satellite
services.
In 2014, the company began negotiating with AT&T, and AT&T later purchased the
company. DIRECT stockholders received $95 per share in cash and stock, which made the
transaction worth some $48.5 billion. The move was beneficial to both organizations. AT&T
was able to improve its market share into the pay-TV sector and built up the U-verse brand
as well. At this time, DIRECTV had about 20 million US customers and was continuing to grow
fast, including the Latin America market.
The merger of the two companies took some time to go
through after facing regulatory approval from the FCC and the US Department of Justice, as
well as some governments in Latin America. In July of 2015, the deal was approved by the
FCC. It included requiring AT&T to expand its existing fiber optic broadband service to
more customers, schools, and libraries.
In August of 2015, AT&T decided it would no longer invest in its U-verse platform.
Rather, the company set out to create a new in-home TV service. The goal of this new product
was to display content directly from DIRECTV. In September of 2015, Ericsson was selected to
work on DIRECTV and U-verse TV service integration. Also, the company brought on Enrique
Rodriguez, a former Sirius XM, Microsoft and Cisco Systems executive to help combine U-verse
TV and DIRECTV into one service.