DirecTV Announces Collaborations with Intel, AOL

El Segundo, CA-based DirecTV continues its drive towards bringing added value to the digital set-top market with several new alliances unveiled today.

By: Tom Butts

DirecTV, the leading provider of satellite broadcasting services in the US, announced it will use Santa Clara, CA-based Intel chips in its set-top boxes. The first of these products will be the recently announced Dulles, VA-based AOL TV satellite receiver, capable of supporting AOL TV, which announced its partnership strategy in April. The Intel/Hughes deal is one of the largest investments Intel has made outside of its traditional PC market.

The two companies also announced that Intel is licensing DirecPC technology from Hughes in order to integrate the technology into future products. DirecPC is Hughes broadband Internet service, which provides Internet access at cable-modem speed anywhere in the continental US.

In addition, AOL said it would make a $1.5 billion investment in Hughes Electronics (Germantown, MD), owner of DirecTV. Part of the investment will go towards developing new content and services for global markets.

These announcements are just the latest in a string of alliances DirecTV has made this year targeting the interactive digital set-top market. The company also has an agreement with Alameda, CA-based Wink Communications to develop interactive content and in April, took a more than 10% investment in TiVo, a developer of hard-drive based video disk recorders.