DIRECTV Launched 30 Years Ago Today – How I Was Involved & So Was O.J. Simpson!

By Phillip Swann
The TV Answer Man –Follow me on X.

On June 17, 1994, two newsworthy events occurred. DIRECTV began selling its new 18-inch satellite dish and a former football player turned murder suspect named O.J. Simpson decided to take a joyless ride around Los Angeles’ freeways in a white Bronco. With the 30th anniversary of the DIRECTV launch coming this Monday, I thought I would recount my involvement in the start of the small dish satellite TV business, how America reacted to the then revolutionary new TV delivery system, and, yes, how O.J. had a role.

Thirty years later, with satellite customers defecting to new streaming services, it’s hard to comprehend how amazing the DIRECTV dish was at the time. For the first time since cable became preeminent in the 1980s, there was an alternative for viewers desperately seeking more choices. Cable was stuck on 57 channels and nothing on but DIRECTV promised hundreds of channels and mind-blowing features such as the NFL Sunday Ticket and recent theatrical movies that could be ordered for less than $5 each. (DIRECTV started with less than 100 channels but soon expanded to close to 200 with additional satellite launches.)

DIRECTV was not perfect — it didn’t have local channels at launch and it required a view to the Southern sky to install the dish — but its programming offerings and digital picture were far superior to cable from the jump. The dish and installation were pricey ($699) but the program packages were affordable starting around $20 a month.

Several months before the June 17 launch, which took place at a single electronics store called Cowboy Maloney’s in Jackson, Mississippi, I was working as the editor of a TV guide for big satellite dishes called Satellite ORBIT. My bosses gave me the nod to become editor of a new guide for DIRECTV called Satellite DIRECT, which means I began my 30 years of covering DIRECTV before it even began!

I didn’t go to Mississippi for the June 17 event, but I did travel to Indianapolis in the summer of 1994 to watch DIRECTV go on sale there, just the second city in the nation to get it. (DIRECTV started in five test markets in the summer of 1994 before going nationwide.) There were long lines of people waiting for the store to open, and many of them told me they were excited to finally get a serious alternative to cable TV.

While at the Indianapolis store, I decided to buy a DIRECTV dish and receiver myself, brought it back with me and installed it on my balcony in my 18th floor apartment in Alexandria, Virginia. I was the first person in the Washington, D.C. area to have DIRECTV. Within days, I realized that DIRECTV’s on-screen guide, which made searching for upcoming programs a breeze, would soon make the printed TV guide biz obsolete. I told my bosses but they turned a deaf ear and we know how that turned out. My company went out of business a few decades ago and TV Guide itself has become an entertainment mag/web site.

Over the years, as a magazine and online journalist, I reported on the meteoric rise of DIRECTV, which eventually became the leading pay TV provider in the nation. I also partnered with Nielsen Media Research in the 1990s to do four comprehensive studies of the DIRECTV audience to determine why Americans were so taken with the ‘little’ dish. DIRECTV expanded to more than 20 million subscribers in the first 20 years or so before the implosion began after it was mismanaged by AT&T, and the emergence of streaming which offered cheaper video alternatives.

It’s easy to forget DIRECTV’s importance in the culture and entertainment business. But DIRECTV helped give birth to the modern sports TV boom with the Sunday Ticket and other nicely packaged and produced sports offerings. It also was among the first companies to fund original programming with its DIRECTV Audience channel (the home of the last few seasons of Friday Night Lights and other interesting fare.)

And despite all the attention that YouTube TV gets with its multi-view feature, DIRECTV has had it for years. The satcaster has been a friend to new technology, particularly High-Definition TV a few decades ago; DIRECTV carried new HD channels when no one else would. DIRECTV should also be credited for giving a home to numerous niche channels which went on to become important players in the industry.

So on Monday, when the 30th anniversary comes round, give a tip of the hat to DIRECTV. If you love TV, as who doesn’t?!, DIRECTV helped shaped the way you watch and what you watch.

Now, The Epilogue
So how does O.J. Simpson play a role here? Well, O.J. was taken into police custody the day that DIRECTV’s dish first went on sale and he might have been a bit too preoccupied to notice. However, perhaps he did notice because on October 4, 1995, one day after Simpson was acquitted of the murder of his ex-wife, Nicole, and her friend, Ron Goldman, by a Los Angeles jury, our circulation department at Satellite DIRECTV got a call.

It was O.J., who had been in jail from June 17, 1994 until October 3, 1995, the day of the acquittal. He told the circulation folks he got a DIRECTV dish and wanted to subscribe to Satellite DIRECT. Our circulation team took his information and confirmed it. Yes, it was really the Juice and apparently getting DIRECTV was a big priority for him after getting out of prison.

Amazing.

The TV Answer Man is veteran journalist Phillip Swann who has covered the TV technology scene for more than three decades. He will report on the latest news and answer your questions regarding new devices and services that are changing the way you watch television. See the bio for Phillip Swann here.

Have a question about new TV technologies? Send it to The TV Answer Man at swann@tvanswerman.com Please include your first name and hometown in your message.