DirecTV is preparing to release some new products and services to keep customers from defecting to cable and telco TV, although most of them sound like “me-too” services. 

Interim CEO Larry Hunter, speaking yesterday to analysts to discuss the company’s third-quarter earnings, said that in the next few months DirecTV will begin shipping receivers that provide whole-home functionality, including multi-room viewing, broadband connectivity for video on demand and TV Apps, and networking with PCs to view pictures, listen to music, etc.  These are services that the top telcos are already providing through their advanced, fiber fueled triple-play package.

In the same timeframe, he said, DirecTV will launch a search engine “that in many ways will look and feel like a PC search.”  This potentially could be a stand-out for the company, since program guides are often the biggest gripe that consumers have about their multichannel video services. 

Hunter said the company has already been having big success with one of its newest programming and technology initiatives  – and arguably its biggest differentiator. The company this year began  streaming NFL games to cell phones for NFL Sunday Ticket subscribers, and that serv ice has proven to be more successful than anticipated.  On a typical Sunday, DirecTV now has “twice as many customers watching games on their cell phones and, in particular, iPhones, as [it] did last year watching on their PCs,” Hunter said.

Filed under: Content, VOD, mobile, satellite TV, streaming media by Scott Sleek | Social tagging: DirecTV > DVR > iPhones > NFL Sunday Ticket > video on demand