New York - DirecTV (NYSE: DTV), the No. 1 satellite-TV provider in terms of subscribers, is testing its own version of an on-demand movies and television service that it plans to launch in the second quarter with some 3000 titles, according to the Wall Street Journal (WSJ). The new services will potentially put DirecTV’s satellite service in direct competition with on-demand services that so far only have been available on cable or newer phone-company TV services.

To achieve the on-demand functionality, DirecTV will utalize a combination of digital-video-recorder technology and broadband connections to overcome satellite's technological limitations of being a one-way broadcast technology. While the content pushed onto the DVR hard drive does eat into the overall space, supposedly it does not impede on the space allotted to the user's side of the disk.

In some ways, DirecTV's service is similar to a much more limited offering introduced by Dish Network Corp. last fall. That service also uses broadband connections to deliver on demand content, but is limited to pay movies, notes WSJ.

Related Link:
http://tinyurl.com/22h989

http://www.directv.com/DTVAPP/index.jsp

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