Satellite

摘要

DirecTV will plunge into the home security market next year, building on its acquisition ofnLifeShield and its wireless technology, said DirecTV CEO Michael White on an earnings call last week. LifeShield, which has 100 employees and about 22,000 subscribers to its Internet Protocol-based wirelessnhome security service, will be DirecTV’s entry into a market that has a 20 percent U.S. install base, Whitensaid. In addition to ADT, DirecTV will be up against other security companies including FrontPoint Security,nVivint and Protect America, as well as cable operators like Comcast and Time Warner Cable thatnare venturing into the category. LifeShield's service will be rolled out across the satellite network in 2014nand will be a “nice add on” to the company’s monthly average revenue per user, White said. DirecTV willnput direct marketing, installation and service behind LifeShield, creating a “mini” bundle with its satellitenoffering, White said. “We’re trying to make sure we get all of the ducks in a row executionally” beforenputting a major push behind LifeShield, White said. Bundles with the product allow remote monitoringnvia an app that’s available for iPad and iPhone, said DirecTV. The systems come with a HomescreennTouchpad that’s outfitted with a dashboard replete with surveillance and system safety widgets. The additionnof home security will further expand DirecTV’s offerings of advanced technologies, including wholehomensystems, that have about 4 million subscribers, up 55 percent from a year ago, said Chief FinancialnOfficer Patrick Doyle. With programming costs increasing an average of 8 percent, DirecTV isn’t rulingnout packaging a terrestrial antenna with its receiver to get broadcast networks, White said. DirecTV usednto build the tuners into the receivers, and if retransmission fees and programming costs “get to a certainnpoint, everything is on the table,” White said. DirecTV’s cost of installing such an antenna could benaround $150, so it’s "probably not as attractive as it needs to be, but it’s a more attractive alternative thannit used to be,” White said. “We’ll see how the costs evolve.” Among its carriage agreements, DirecTVnmay consider dropping its Pac-12 college football package, because the conference wants to “put moreninto a bundle that’s already too big and tax all of the customers at a rate that we don’t believe is fair” fornthose who aren’t interested in it, White said. Meanwhile, DirecTV settled in July a 13-year-old patent infringementnlawsuit filed against it by Pegasus Development Corp. and Personalized Media Communicationn(PMC), the company said in SEC documents. The suit, filed in December 2000 in U.S. District Courtnin Wilmington, Del., alleged DirecTV infringed four patents, including one covering the use of digital keyninformation to decode a digital or analog information transmission that was encoded to prevent unauthorizednaccess. The case also involved the so-called '825 patent that was granted PMC's John Harvey andnJames Cuddihy in 1990 and described a signal processor system with a means for demodulating carrierntransmissions. Gemstar, the remnants of which are now part of Rovi, was once an exclusive licensee fornthe patents, according to court records. DirecTV, which struck a tentative agreement with PMC in May,nsettled the case for an amount that won't have a "material effect on our consolidated financial position,"nthe company said.