DIRECTV Video-on-Demand Plans

DIRECTV’s On-Demand product is set to officially launch later this year, in the second quarter according to an article posted today by the Wall Street Journal. Will the product match up with the true video-on-demand (VOD) offerings provided by cable TV?

Beta testing of Direct TV “On-Demand” has been going on since August 2007, and reviews have been decidedly mixed on the service. While some have found the On-Demand service workable, others have deemed it worthless, at least so far.

True On-Demand being offered by Comcast and other cable operators gives the customer to pick and watch shows at their convenience. Similar to a DVR, the end user has control on when they want to view the program. The difference from a DVR is that the cable company holds the programming on a central server for everyone to access a menu of programming when they want it. Comcast’s Project Infinity promises “1000 HD Choices” by the end of this year, and cable has taken this approach in trying to compete with the HD offerings from DIRECTV.

Direct TV has put into play two methods to mimic the VOD offerings from cable.

One method utilizes the customers DVR and broadband connection. The customer hooks their high-speed connection, which must be faster than 750 kbps, to the DVR, then downloads the programming they want to view. The obstacle here is that it is not really true VOD. The customer must wait for at least some of the program to download before starting to watch. Times to download an entire movie vary from two to five hours depending on the speed of a user’s internet connection.

The second method involves DIRECTV sending movies and other content to subscribers DVR’s, where they will be stored for later access. This solves the download problem, but how much content can really be stored on a DVR? Nowhere near the hundreds and even thousands of hours available via cable. Automatically sending the programs to the DVR takes up space, and even if it is separated specifically for VOD, some DIRECTV customers would certainly like as much disk space as possible for their own use.

So is DIRECTV smart for trying to be all things to all people? Time will tell, but having to wait to download “On-Demand” content will not appeal to the masses. Cable offerings are forcing the hand of Direct TV and Dish Network to come up with some sort of VOD in order to claim they are in the game.