DirecTV to Test Version of Video on Demand

Trying to keep pace with a popular new cable TV service, satellite TV provider DirecTV plans a six-month experiment this year with a new version of video on demand.

With video on demand, consumers can choose from a digital library of programs, then play, pause, rewind and fast-forward the video as if it were on tape.

Cable operators use a central computer to store their video-on-demand libraries, and viewers draw programs from the library through a two-way cable connection. Satellite operators don’t have the capacity or two-way connections needed to duplicate that approach, so they need to store their video-on- demand libraries on digital recorders in subscribers’ homes.

Working with Starz Encore Group, DirecTV, a subsidiary of General Motors Corp. unit Hughes Electronics Corp., plans to beam as many as five movies a week to subscribers who have satellite receivers with built-in digital recorders from TiVo Inc.

The movies will be transmitted at the beginning of the week, starting in mid-summer, and subscribers will be able to watch them as often as they wish until the next crop of films arrives.

The main shortcoming is the recorders’ limited storage capacity, which prevents DirecTV from putting many of Starz’s movies into the service. Although the capacity is expected to increase quickly in future models, today’s receivers have room for only 25 hours of programming.

“We want to first test the experience, the navigation, the interaction, and to see the operational part of it,” said John Sie, chief executive of Starz Encore.

The company’s ultimate goal is to make the films in Starz Encore’s premium movie package available on demand, whether it’s on cable or on satellite, Sie said.