Satellite tv provider Direct TV crushed cable TV operator Bright House Networks in a press release issued last week. Brighthouse is headquartered out of Syracuse, New York. They are the dominant cable TV provider in the Central Florida area, serving the Tampa and Orlando markets, and also have operations in Alabama, Indiana, Michigan and California.
Brighthouse, a mid-sized operator is one of many cable tv companies including Comcast and Time Warner involved in an ongoing dispute over carriage of the NFL Network. While the large cable tv operators have cried foul over the price NFL Network is demanding per subscriber, DirecTV has been on board with the NFL Network from day one. Leveraging that agreement, DirecTV comes out with this publicity stunt with regard to showing off the NFL Network. The press release states in part:
The DIRECTV Starship “fly over” project will begin this Thursday in Tampa where local residents can simply step outside and look to the sky to enjoy the NFL Network’s broadcast of the Denver Broncos-Houston Texans game. The “fly overs” continue the following Saturday, this time above St. Petersburg for the Cincinnati Bengals-San Francisco 49ers NFL Network broadcast. The following week, the Starship will visit the Orlando area for Thursday’s Pittsburgh Steelers-St. Louis Rams broadcast and that Saturday’s Dallas Cowboys-Carolina Panthers broadcast.
The first of its kind to operate in North America, and one of only two worldwide, the blimp and its 2,100-square foot video light sign display DIRECTV HD spots and messaging in full color. The 178-foot long blimp, emblazoned in DIRECTV blue and white, features the 70×30-foot full color monitor just beneath the DIRECTV logo. The video light sign, with a resolution of 33,600 total pixels, is the largest ever made for a blimp. The airship can travel up to 35 miles per hour and remain airborne up to six hours.
So DirecTV hatches up a plan to float the DirecTV blimp all over Florida. Well Florida, are you enjoying the games now, like DirecTV says, all you have to do is “step outside” and look up. All the DirecTV programming is available on that blimp flying by your door outside…
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Is the DirecTV service started in the bay area? Looking forward to the NFL season to be available over there.