Posted by: Seth Shapiro
DIRECTV Entertainment president and FOX Sports CEO David Hill has returned to FOX after two years of triumph in original entertainment from the DBS broadcaster and creative powerhouse. Well not really.
Those of us who worked there, or have ever worked at an MSO, were confused by New Corp’s decision to devote major resources to creating DIRECTV Original Programming in the first place – resources that normally would have gone towards developing better set-top boxes, and an HD DVR that worked. Oh well, priorities differ. What never made sense was how the same brilliant corporation that created Sky could have bungled so badly at DIRECTV, throwing away vital years on broadband development while Comcast made brilliant strat acquisitions and Time Warner Cable prepped its IPO.
I miss the DIRECTV that existed before the News acquisition. It may have been a 1957 aerospace geekfest but it was real about what it was, and did what it did extremely well. Now it’s an arrogant frat boy that may buy off the Street for a while, but is not fooling its customers, at all.
I’m Andy Rooney – good night.
