Advertisement - Click to support our sponsors.

DirecTV
enters market for
small-dish TV
in Hawaii

The satellite programming
provider will offer
competition to EchoStar

---

By Tim Ruel
Star-Bulletin

DirecTV Inc. will begin selling four satellite television programming packages in Hawaii today, putting it in competition locally with EchoStar Communications Corp.

El Segundo, Calif.-based DirecTV will offer the service in both English and Spanish, the company said yesterday. Service for each language requires a separate satellite dish, which local retailers could sell from $199 to $399.

The company previously served every state except Hawaii. DirecTV could not reach Hawaii until the company recently bought stronger satellites, spokesman Robert Mercer said today.

DirecTV's packages range $19.99 to $23.99 a month, and include up to 110 channels with movie services, such as HBO and Showtime, and pay-per-view programs.

Littleton, Colo.-based EchoStar kicked off a similar service five months ago in Hawaii, offering 70 satellite channels for $29 a month. The small dishes retailed from $235 to $500. The company has offered a more-expensive service using a larger dish in Hawaii since 1996.

DirecTV is owned by Hughes Electronics Corp., a unit of General Motors Corp.

Media Mogul Rupert Murdoch announced yesterday that he sold 7 million EchoStar shares worth $343 million, reducing his stake to 26 million shares, or 11 percent of outstanding holdings.

GM recently said it would be willing to sell DirecTV's parent to Murdoch. DirecTV is worth $36 billion to $44 billion, about 70 percent of Hughes, according to analysts.

Another satellite company, AlphaStar Television Network Inc., came to Hawaii in 1996, but filed bankruptcy a year later, leaving several thousand local subscribers with useless equipment.

DirecTV's receiving equipment will be sold locally at Dish Hawaii, Harmer Communications, Chock's TV & Appliance, Jack Wada Electronics and MicroComm, the company said.