Hughes Electronics In 1953,
Howard Hughes created the
Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI), to which he transferred full ownership of
Hughes Aircraft. Following Hughes' death in 1976, HHMI was incorporated in 1977, and litigation ensued to determine whether it would be allowed to maintain its interest in Hughes Aircraft. In 1984, the court appointed a new board for HHMI, which proceeded to sell off Hughes Aircraft to
General Motors on December 20, 1985, for an estimated $5.1 billion. General Motors then merged Hughes Aircraft with its subsidiary
Delco Electronics to create Hughes Electronics Corporation.
USSB Stanley E. Hubbard founded
United States Satellite Broadcasting (USSB) and was a leading proponent for the development of direct-broadcast satellite service in the United States. HHMI and other companies believed in the early 1990s that technology would soon make digital satellite television affordable. In the 1990s, Hubbard teamed up with
Thomson Consumer Electronics and Hughes Electronics to come up with a practical digital satellite service capable of 175 channels; Hughes Electronics created DirecTV as a separate division and secured an agreement with USSB to build and launch the first high-power direct-broadcast satellite system. Direct satellite broadcasters were mandated in 1992 to set aside 4% of its channel space for noncommercial educational and informational programming. DirecTV selected
C-SPAN,
EWTN and the
Trinity Broadcasting Network from its current channel lineup, plus additional proposals from other programmers. DirecTV selected an additional six channels for the mandate: Clara+Vision,
Inspirational Life,
NASA TV, PBS YOU, StarNet and
WorldLink TV. The USSB and DirecTV programming services were launched on June 17, 1994.
DirecTV DirecTV soon began to expand after its initial launch; in December 1998, DirecTV acquired
USSB for $1.3 billion, and combined the two satellite services. In 1999, DirecTV acquired
PrimeStar, a competitor in the satellite television industry, for $1.83 billion, dramatically increasing its share of the satellite television market in the US. On January 31, 2004, Hughes announced its intent to focus solely on its satellite television operations and divest its other interests, renaming itself The DirecTV Group, Inc. on March 16, 2004, and changing its ticker symbol from "HS" to "DTV". In April of that year, it sold its controlling interest in PanAmSat to a private consortium led by
Kohlberg Kravis Roberts for $3.53 billion. On April 22, 2005, DirecTV spun off Hughes Network Systems into a separate entity and sold 50% of the new entity to
SkyTerra, acquiring $157.4 million in the transaction. DirecTV later sold its remaining 50% share in Hughes Network Systems to SkyTerra for $100 million. On November 1, 2005, DirecTV made its foray with its first original series, CD US, on Freeview. In December 2005, the U.S.
Federal Trade Commission imposed a $5.3 million penalty on DirecTV for its violations of federal telemarketing regulations. It was the largest civil penalty the FTC had ever announced in a case enforcing any consumer protection law. In September 2008, consumers filed a class action lawsuit with the Los Angeles Superior Court to stop DirecTV's practice of charging early cancellation penalties to subscribers. A motion for a preliminary injunction was filed to block the company from automatically removing the fees from customers' bank accounts or charging their credit card accounts without their prior knowledge and written consent. In 2009, the Washington Attorney General's office filed a civil complaint against DirecTV, finding that the company allegedly engaged in numerous repeated violations of the state's Consumer Protection Act. Violations included: unclear rebate terms and conditions, unfair advertisement, and automatically extending customer contracts. On February 9, 2010, DirecTV dropped
Sirius XM Radio and replaced the channel lineup with
Sonic Tap audio stations. DirecTV subsequently settled a similar suit with the other 49 states and the District of Columbia for $13.25 million. In July 2012, DirecTV had a major contract dispute with
Viacom, leading to channels such as
Nickelodeon,
MTV and
Comedy Central to be taken
off the air temporarily In their place, a message appeared on screen reading as follows: "Viacom, the owner of this channel, forced DirecTV to suspend it despite our many requests to keep it on. We are working to bring it back as soon as possible without an unfair increase to your bill. Disruptions like this are brief. Go to DirecTVPromise.com for the latest info." DirecTV executive Derek Chang said to the media "We have been very willing to get a deal done, but Viacom is pushing DirecTV customers to pay more than a 30 percent increase, which equates to an extra $1 billion..." He then said that he couldn't accept Viacom's "extravagant financial demands." Denise Denson, Viacom's Executive Vice President of Content Distribution and Marketing, responded by mentioning how DirecTV refused to speak with Viacom past 11 am. Tuesday, saying that DirecTV's last offer to the company was "lower than anyone else pays us in the industry." The channels were only down for a few days, as contract negotiations were quickly settled after the channels were removed. On March 11, 2015, the Federal Trade Commission filed a lawsuit against DIRECTV for deceptive advertising. The FTC claimed that DIRECTV failed to properly disclose terms of its TV packages, such as contractual obligations and premiums. On March 1, 2016, AT&T announced plans for several DirecTV-branded
over-the-top services, including AT&T TV, DIRECTV Mobile, and DIRECTV Preview to be offered under one platform called
DirecTV Now. The platform launched on November 30, 2016, and was directly competing against
Sling TV. DirecTV was bought under the same umbrella as
HBO,
Cinemax,
Turner Broadcasting System,
Warner Bros., and
Telepictures when AT&T bought Time Warner for over $80 billion in 2016. In January 2022, the Los Angeles Sports & Entertainment Commission announced that DirecTV would serve as Presenting Sponsor of ''The chairman's Party'', a
Super Bowl after-party inside
SoFi Stadium. DirecTV completed its national rollout of local
PBS member stations in February 2022. Nearly 250 local PBS stations in 198
Nielsen DMAs were added that reach 99% of all U.S. TV homes. In February 2023, DirecTV presented and sponsored the third annual
American Cornhole League (ACL) Pro Shootout Series, where
Tyler Lockett represented DirecTV. DirecTV launched a brand campaign, "Overly Direct Spokesperson," starring
Brian Cox in April of that year; this was part of its new brand strategy platform, "Entertainment Without Compromise". DirecTV launched its satellite-free "For the Birds" streaming brand campaign, featuring
Henry Winkler and
Steve Buscemi, in February 2024.
Deoin Sanders joined the marketing campaign in August 2024. MyFree DirecTV, a free streaming service, was launched in November 2024. MyFree DirecTV provides access to the
FAST platform as well as an On-Demand library for free with commercials. The service is available on DirecTV Gemini devices,
Amazon Fire TV, Apple TV,
Roku, and
Google TV. DirecTV MySports, a streaming sports bundle, officially launched in January 2025; the new Genre Pack offers 40 live channels and
ESPN+ that do not require a satellite TV subscription. It secured rights to channels owned by the former partners in
Venu Sports and
Comcast's
NBCUniversal, plus the broadcast rights to the major US sports leagues such as the
NFL,
NBA,
NHL, and
MLB as well as major collegiate conferences. Other national sports channels available through DirecTV MySports include:
ACC Network, Big Ten Network, ESPN,
ESPN2,
ESPNU,
Fox Sports 1,
Fox Sports 2, Golf Channel,
SEC Network,
TBS,
TNT,
TruTV, and
USA Network. In February 2025, DirecTV launched additional Genre Packs, a live TV streaming subscription where users can select from multiple programming options based on the types of content consumers prefer. As of April 2025, there are four Genre Pack options available: MyEntertainment, MyNews, MySports and MiEspañol. Consumers of any Genre Pack also gain access to 100+ channels available through MyFree DirecTV. In March 2025, DirecTV announced the launch of MyHome Team including RSNs. MyHome Team is available to MySports customers and features locally available live sports and in-market games from 37 professional franchises in the U.S. including 12 MLB teams, 15 NBA teams and 10 NHL teams.
Ownership On April 9, 2003,
News Corporation, the then-parent company of
20th Century Fox (now known as
20th Century Studios) and
Fox Television Studios, agreed to purchase a 34% controlling interest in
Hughes, including GM's entire share of the company, for $6.6 billion, subject to SEC approval. The FCC voted 3–2 along party lines on December 19, 2003, to approve the deal subject to conditions, forcing News Corp. to agree to
arbitration for all disputes with carriers of its media broadcasters, and to provide content through DirecTV neutrally rather than favoring its own networks. On December 13, 2007, DirecTV purchased most of the assets of
ReplayTV from D&M Holdings. News Corporation transferred its 38.5% controlling interest in The DirecTV Group, four regional
Fox Sports Net stations, and $550 million cash to Liberty Media in exchange for Liberty's 19% interest in News Corp. The deal, valued at $11 billion, was approved by News Corp. shareholders in 2008. On May 4, 2009, Liberty announced that it would split off Liberty Entertainment, Inc., and Liberty's 65% interest in
Game Show Network, into a separate company to be merged with The DirecTV Group. The merger was completed on November 19, 2009, with The DirecTV Group and Liberty Entertainment becoming subsidiaries of a new company named DirecTV, and
PepsiCo executive Michael White as its CEO. In June 2013, DirecTV purchased Pennsylvania-based LifeShield, a maker of
wireless home security systems, with plans to market the systems to its customers. On May 18, 2014,
AT&T announced that it would purchase DirecTV for approximately $67.1 billion. The acquisition was officially approved by the FCC in 2015; it was subject to conditions for four years, requiring AT&T to expand its fiber-optic broadband service to additional customers, public libraries, and schools, and to "refrain from imposing discriminatory usage-based allowances or other discriminatory retail terms and conditions on its broadband internet service". DirecTV adopted a new logo in December 2015, replacing its previous emblem with that of AT&T. AT&T CFO John Stephens stated that DirecTV's larger subscriber base as a national service gave the service a higher degree of leverage in negotiating carriage deals, thus resulting in lower content costs. On February 25, 2021, AT&T announced that it would spin-off DirecTV, including satellite, streaming and U-Verse TV, into a separate entity, selling a 30% stake to
TPG Inc., while retaining a 70% stake in the new standalone company. The deal closed on August 2, 2021, with
Bill Morrow as CEO. On September 30, 2024, AT&T announced that they would sell their remaining 70% stake to TPG Inc. for $7.6 billion, splitting the company off from AT&T for the first time since 2015. however, DirecTV abandoned the deal due to opposition from EchoStar bondholders. == Logo evolution ==