Audio Video News

Last week, DirecTV, a subsidiary of Hughes Electronics, announced that its direct-broadcast satellite (DBS) television service acquired 110,000 new customers in May. This figure is a record for that month, the company reports, and a 57% increase in net customer acquisition over May 1998. An additional 145,000 customers---who previously subscribed only to programming from US Satellite Broadcasting---were gained last month by DirecTV when Hughes completed its merger with USSB on May 20.

DirecTV also says that their customer growth---excluding those gained from the merger with USSB---is up 49% through the first five months of 1999 over the same period last year. Through the end of May, DirecTV states that it now has 5,159,000 customers for its high-power DBS service. Another 2 million customers have joined DirecTV's ranks through the recently acquired PrimeStar medium-power DBS service (see previous story).