DirecTV
As of September 2010, DirecTV is the second highest multiple system operator (MSO) with 18,934,000 subscribers. DirecTV began on June 17th, 1994 and is now owned by The DirecTV Group. That group is controlled by Liberty Media. In addition to providing television services, DirecTV also offers high speed Internet, digital video recorder (DVR), and mobile applications that can control users’ DVR.
Users’ reactions towards DirecTV’s services are varied from users loving it to users hating it. A forum from Viewpoints.com allows users to rate and review certain products. For DirecTV, there is one reviewer who switched from Dish Network to DirecTV and loved it. She said that the DVR feature was better because she was able to simultaneously record shows and wrote that DirecTV was a great satellite provider. Another reviewer commented on the dependable service and the ease of installing a DirecTV satellite dish. Since having her DirecTV, this user has not had any problems and stated that it is more dependable than cable TV. She also mentioned that the satellite dish did not take up much space and the installation time took less than an hour.
On the other side of the spectrum, there have been many negative reviews about DirecTV. In another forum discussing this MSO, users have had bad experiences with it. One user said that DirecTV mislead him about the number of channels he would receive. He was told that he would receive 67 channels but most of these channels were news or movie clips. When he called to see if he could change his channels, they representative offered him another package that required him to pay more money. Another user complained that he continually looses his TV reception due to snow. When he called to have it fixed, he was advised to clean out the snow first. Many users in Oregon, California, Washington, and New York have criticized the removal of FOX network due to the agreement between the two companies have expired. These users want to switch to another service especially since they are missing their favorite shows and news programs.
