Currently, two leading satellite television service companies operating in the United States are the DIRECTV and DISH Network. These two companies have been in a war as far as the industry of satellite TV consumers for more than two decades. Both companies mainly focus on similar services and products being offered for sale with slight differences between the two that a potential subscriber should consider while selecting between the two.
An Overview of DIRECTV
DIRECTV has the largest market share of satellite TV services in the US with about 16 million users across the country. In 1994 the company had sent its first satellite to space and had been among the first few service providers to offer hundreds of digital channels including high definition programming directly to homes across the country.
Some key things to know about DIRECTV: Some key things to know about DIRECTV:
- Have access to more than 155 + High Definition channels and numerous thousand of titles for On Demand watching. This includes the pay-TV movie channels such as HBO, Showtime and Cinemax, among others.
- Includes out-of-market NFL Sunday Ticket, which gives football lovers the opportunity to watch any game at any given Sunday within a particular season irrespective of the team’s location.
- Offers several viewing packages at varying prices with the basic plan going for $64.99 per month featuring 145+ channels. There are more channels, private networks and channels according to the interest of the customer such as movie channels, sports channels, kids’ channels etc in higher tier plans.
- Includes Genie HD DVR receiver system which permits for 5 HD show recording and over 200 hours recording time in HD, and enables to view shows from any room in the house.
- Provides service through satellite vehicles located at the equator and transmits coverage throughout the continental U.S. and Alaska, Hawaii, and Puerto Rico.
- Has an HD app that enables the subscriber to stream live TV and DVR contents on mobile devices at home or from any location.
DISH Network Classification
DISH Network, as the name suggests is a satellite service provider and the second largest service provider in the United States after DIRECTV, with approximately 12 million subscribers across the United States of America. They ventured into satellite business in 1995 and they were the first company to provide a rich HDTV package coupled with best rated DVR systems.
Some key things to know about DISH Network:Some key things to know about DISH Network:
- Presents cable TV programs of more than 240 channels, movies and programs on demand and overseas channels. The packages range from $59.99 for 120+ channels and above.
- Offers specific interest add-on channel packs like movie lovers extra pack, sports extra pack, outdoors pack, and so on for $4-$15 per month to let you build your favorites.
- He unveiled the Hopper 3 DVR which enables you to record up to 16 shows concurrently. It also allows playback of any recording from any room in the house and live TV monitoring with the help of the tablet.
- Provides unique generic package for international customers with over 280 foreign channels in 29 languages and over 30 foreign language premium packages.
- Delivery is possible across the United States because it is composed of 50 states. Of course, there may be some customers in certain areas who can only receive SD programming due to line of sight satellite problems.
- Offers the NFL Red Zone channel at $40 per season as an add-on. Therefore, there are no buttons to get NFL Sunday Ticket.
- It has a menu that is integrated directly into Netflix which is a built-in feature into the set-top box enabling one to switch easily between DISH and Netflix.
Comparing the Two
This is the only satellite television service that is easily available in the United States and its two big providers are DIRECTV and DISH but there are some differences between them such as programming, equipment, customer satisfaction and price.
In channels and variety, DIRECTV provides more choices with over 285+ total channels including different programming packages and options such as movies and sports extra features. DIRECTV is also competitive in this aspect as they are starting at 190+ more basic packages but has more variety in their additional choices in foreign language and adult channels not offered by DISH.
If you are a fan of sports DIRECTV has the Sunday ticket which is exclusive to the company and any NFL lover would consider it’s important to have one. Sling TV has a few football related content, but the Red Zone channel is exclusively provided by DISH network.
Speaking of the equipment, the Genie DVR receivers by DIRECTV are the most favorably discussed by the reviewers in terms of storage, record capabilities, and overall versatility, primarily if combined with the DIRECTV app. Hopper 3 from DISH Network is not far behind with its equally intuitive and powerful specs for much cheaper price.
Mystery shopping and/or customer satisfaction polls show that, year after year, DIRECTV beats out DISH. This could be attributed to the better coverage area of DIRECTV, superior equipments and total number of channels offered are comparatively higher than Dish Network. Nevertheless, DISH often matches or even undercuts the prices of DIRECTV especially when targeting the new clients. And these are some of the strategies that have been proven to have increased customer satisfaction ratings over the years.
Bottom Line
In any case, when comparing the two giants in the satellite television industry, which include DIRECTV and DISH, it is evident that DIRECTV has a slight better record than DISH in the areas of programming packages, availability across the country, accessibility to sports channel via NFL Sunday Ticket, customer satisfaction surveys, and the use of Genie system as the most advanced DVR system. However, DISH must be commended for leveling the playing field in the recent past with better technology such as the Hopper 3 DVR coupled by constantly lower costs.
In other words, it’s mostly a matter of choice based on your budget for programming, equipment, and technology when comparing and contrasting the two major satellite TV providers of DirectTV and Dish network when deciding to ‘cut the cord’ on cable TV. Fortunately, both companies, DIRECTV and DISH, have tools that enable customers to compare the packages they offer online, for starters.
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