Customers who subscribe to the channels can use the Starz Play and Encore Play apps for iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch. The apps themselves are free. There are also web interfaces for the offerings at starzplay.com and encoreplay.com.

“We are very pleased to expand our relationship with DirecTVand add Starz Play and Encore Play to the suite of premium offerings provided by one of our largest customers,” said Ed Huguez , President of Affiliate Distribution for Starz Entertainment. “Starz and Encore subscription performance on DirecTV is consistently strong with a loyal customer base. Now our subscribers on DirecTV – ranging from tech savvy to novices – are sure to enjoy the added benefit of a terrific user-experience of the Play services as part of their monthly subscriptions.”

Starz Play offers users about 400 monthly selections, including 300 movies from Disney, Sony and others. There are also 100 episodes of Starz exclusives like Spartacus, Magic City and Boss. Encore Play offers about 900 monthly selections, including 300 movies and “select originals”.

The services come with resume functionality, so you can start watching something and pick it up where you left off later. There are also parental controls.

Here’s what Daniel Tosh had to say about it.

Viacom has now cut off online streaming of some of its shows from its sites, to all viewers, so now even people that aren’t DirecTV customers no longer have convenient online access. CNN reports:

Fans can no longer watch full episodes of shows like “SpongeBob Squarepants” and “iCarly” or “Jersey Shore” and “The Daily Show,” which is sure to further anger the 20 million DirecTV subscribers who continue to find a dark screen when they change the channel to Viacom-owned nets like Nick, MTV, Comedy Central and VH1.

“Once again it’s viewers who suffer when media companies stall in their negotiations. But the scale of Viacom’s overreaction is unprecedented,” said John Bergmayer, a Senior Staff Attorney for the Washington-based public interest group Public Knowledge.

“Viacom has decided to take a service away from all Internet users in its attempt to punish DirecTV,” he added. “It is apparent that Viacom puts little stock in the Internet and the online future of video if it is willing to use all Internet users as a pawn in its negotiations.”

“We hope that Viacom and DirecTV can work out their differences quickly so that people can continue to access Viacom’s popular content lawfully,” he said.

And that’s just it. Those who want it bad enough, will probably seek out access that isn’t so lawful.

Some Viacom content is still available via shows websites and mobile apps, and on Netflix, and probably other similar services. In fact, The Daily Show – one of the shows pulled from online access – still has clips accessible via its Android app.

DirecTV issued a release, saying that its execs have reached out to Viacom with a new proposal, and a request to keep channels while negotiations continue, but have not heard back from the media giant. DirecTV says it had to comply with Viacom’s demand in order to avoid legal action.

“We have been very willing to get a deal done, but Viacom is pushing DirectTV customers to pay more than a 30 percent increase, which equates to an extra $1 billion, despite the fact that the ratings for many of their main networks have plummeted and much of Viacom’s programming can be seen for free online,” said Derek Chang, DirecTV executive vice president of Content, Strategy and Development. “Viacom sent us a letter last night that outlined our obligations to remove the channels by midnight or face legal action just as they were falsely telling viewers DIRECTV was responsible. Let’s be clear, Viacom took these channels away from DirecTV viewers.”

DirecTV has a site set up with more information about what’s going on, and says it will get the deal done.

Comedian Daniel Tosh, who hosts Comedy Central’s Internet video show Tosh.0, and is currently also in the news for a rape joke, has been talking about the situation a little on Twitter. Before Tosh.0 aired on Comedy Central on Tuesday night, Tosh tweeted:

Follow @danieltosh

daniel tosh
@danieltosh

30 minutes until all of you directv viewers will watch your last episode of tosh.0 ever. #sadface

 Reply  ·  Retweet  ·  Favorite
11 hours ago via web · powered by @socialditto

He later followed up with:

Follow @danieltosh

daniel tosh
@danieltosh

thanks everybody and lets all pray this viacom/directv beef gets squashed by next week.

 Reply  ·  Retweet  ·  Favorite
10 hours ago via web · powered by @socialditto

According to Variety, White was speaking at an investors’ conference in New York. White denied that Apple would be able to disrupt the existing TV market enough to present companies like DirecTV with a genuine threat. Discussing rumors that Apple would be unveiling an update to the Apple TV operating system, White said that Apple is “going to launch something, maybe in the next two weeks,” but that “it’s hard to see [it] obsoleting our technology.”

White’s reasoning depends a lot on the fact that media companies aren’t likely to allow Apple to offer the kind of a la carte channel subscriptions they reportedly want to offer. Of course, the FCC is currently considering a rule change that would take that decision out of the media companies’ hands.

What’s really interesting here is how very much White’s predictions about Apple’s chances of “obsoleting our technology” sound like the kinds of things people were saying about the iPhone’s chances of success in 2006 and early 2007, and about the iPad in 2009. Plenty of people expected both products to fizzle. On the other hand, both products were aimed at taking a traditionally non-consumer oriented device and bringing it into the consumer market. The HDTV market, though, is a bit different: it’s already a consumer oriented-market, and a fairly saturated one, at that. So there’s a good chance that White is right, and that Apple really won’t do in the TV market what they did in the smartphone market. A lot will depend on how the FCC comes down on that rule change, and a lot depends on the TV market’s response to whatever product Apple offers.

Now DirecTV has announced that they will begin to offer the Exede by ViaSat and Hughes’ HughesNet Gen4 next-generation satellite broadband services in a partnership deal. The service will offer speeds up to 10 Mbps and will now make every single American eligible for a bundled internet deal.

“We look forward to offering every single DirecTV customer access to fast, affordable broadband options through DirecTV, no matter where they live,” said Oswin Eleonora, senior vice president, Emerging Markets, DirecTV. “With greatly improved capacity and speeds, satellite broadband services provided by ViaSat and Hughes will fully support our customers’ connected home experience, enabling them to access a host of features like YouTube, Pandora, social TV apps, and more than 7,000 VOD titles.”

So now the issue becomes: What are the data caps, and how much is any decent amount of data going to run? On it’s own On its own, Exede comes in three data-capped tiers of 7.5GB, 15GB, and 25GB, priced at $49.99, $79.99, and $129.99, respectively. So look for it to be at least cheaper than that.

The new “Auto Hop” feature for the whole home DVR joins the “PrimeTime Anytime” feature which allows you to record the primetime programing on all 4 major networks (ABC, CBS, NBC, FOX) every night. These features are both completely exclusive to Dish Network, but added to the ability to stream your DVR anywhere on your phone or tablet, and they have completely pulled ahead of DirecTV as far as accessibility of technology.

“The magic of PrimeTime Anytime is that it allows DISH subscribers to catch up on all primetime shows, including episodes recorded over the past week and recommended by friends, family, and co-workers after they’ve already been broadcast,” said Vivek Khemka, vice president of DISH Product Management. “With Hopper, you have access to all primetime HD programs broadcast by the four major networks. Now you can watch many of those shows commercial-free, with Auto Hop.”

It will be interesting to see what Dish Network does going forward. With the Hopper and the purchase of Blockbuster Video they are setting themselves up to be a very big player in the TV game for decades to come.

Neither HBO or DirecTV seem at all concerned. Zatz contacted both companies, and HBO told him they didn’t have anything to do with it, while DirecTV blamed it on movie studios. The satellite TV provider even has the audacity to suggest that users who are blocked switch to component cables to hook up their HDTV. That’s simply not fair for early-adopters of HDTV’s who want to watch True Blood in 1080p.

Zatz points out that no announcement or notice went out before the DRM was turned on. Users were suddenly hit with messages similar to the one in the picture below.

What’s really disturbing about this story is that companies haven’t learned, or haven’t been properly educated, on the failures of DRM. Hackers and pirates will always be able to crack or otherwise circumvent DRM. The only people inconvenienced or, in cases such as this one, totally blocked are paying customers. And with service of this sort, they won’t be that for long.

(image courtesy Zatz Not Funny!)

“MLB Network Strike Zone will provide baseball fans with the award-winning coverage of all 30 clubs they’ve come to rely on from MLB Network,” said Tony Petitti, President and CEO of MLB Network. “We’re excited to continue to expand the reach and scope of MLB Network’s programming.”

As a big baseball fan myself, I’m not quite sure how well this will work. If they cut in to show strikeouts or plays at the plate too, I could see this being good. But just scoring plays? There are really not that many.

MLB Network Strike Zone will launch on Bright House Networks, DIRECTV, DISH Network and Time Warner Cable and will be available today!

DirecTV added streaming functionality for iPad last fall, but users were restricted to watching their content on the same network of their DirecTV receiver, meaning that one basically had to be at home to see anything. The DirecTV Everywhere streaming upgrade allows users to view OnDemand content from premium movie channels like HBO and Showtime, as well as DirecTV’s own Audience Network. Still, users won’t be able to watch live content while away from their home receiver, and the upgrade doesn’t include TV shows at this time.

While DirecTV hasn’t released an official statement on the upgrade, it appears to be following suit with other providers in their push of streaming video content – Comcast launched Xfinity Streampix in February to compete with Hulu and Netflix.

To further compete with the other providers, it can be assumed that DirecTV will in time make more TV shows available through its upgraded streaming service.

In related news, DirecTV just tapped Charlie Sheen to appear in its new commercial:

Reviews appear to be mixed, but I think it’s pretty funny.

Sheen capitalizes on his wild past and cheesy 80s movie personas by driving a tiny Fiat 500 Abarth in the middle of a house while a Super Bowl party is going in the following advertisement. If Batman decided to give up his cape and become a clown, this is the car he would drive. Stepping out of the vehicle to embrace a woman young enough to be his daughter, viewers observe that he is wearing an ankle monitor and forced giggles ensue.

“Not all bad boys are created equal” as stated on this Fiat ad, but I cannot help but notice that Sheen is becoming a dirty old man icon and destroying any chances he might have of resuscitating his career.

Charlie Sheen is so over! After watching this DirecTV ad I am going to go home and smash my Platoon DVD into a thousand pieces.

Oh, and before I forget, the voiceover on the DirecTV ad totally rips off the Dos Equis “most interesting man” commercials.

Only 170,000 people have viewed these commercials since yesterday which might indicate that Sheen is losing steam faster that Fiat and DirecTV realize.