The CEDIA Expo has never been a particularly big show for the satellite industry players. But this week's event in Denver did provide a few tidbits of news worth mentioning.
 
In the video space, both DIRECTV and DISH Network were on hand on the Expo floor, showing off their respective set-top options and educating installers on their latest and greatest feature offerings. DISH was probably the most involved this year given the recent launch of its 1080p Turbo HD service, which Marcel Guajardo, one of the company's product marketing pros, said is proving to be a big hit with consumers.
 
"It's definitely taking off with the high end, cost-is-no-object kind of buyers," he said. "But we're also seeing more of the average users in there too. People are realizing that, for just a little more money they can have a big jump in performance."
 
In addition to the Turbo HD pep rally, DISH took advantage of the CEDIA spotlight to launch two new set-top DVRs - the ViP722 and the ViP722k - both of which offer 350 hours of SD storage and 55 hours of HD (the 722k includes an optional OTA tuner).
 
The CEDIA Expo also turned out to be the unofficial coming out party for Sirius XM, though very little seemed to have changed between the two companies as of Expo time. The Sirius logo was still all over the Sirius booth, for example, and the company was still plugging away with its standard array of installed home systems products. XM, for its part, was nowhere to be found. One Sirius rep said that things are moving along, though it is still early in the process.
 
"In the home channel, XM has a lot of the same partners and we (Sirius) have a lot of the same partners," she said, "so we're still just trying to bring that all together."

(Editor's Note: Retail BRIDGE Editor Tim Sprinkle and the Kable Kid are at CEDIA Expo, blogging from the event in Denver. Those blogs can be found at www.mediabiz.com. Also, Retail BRIDGE has the latest news from the Expo, which can be found at: www.theretailbridge.com.)

Nexstar Broadcasting entered into separate multi-year retransmission consent agreements with DIRECTV and AT&T, giving the two video providers rights to carry the standard definition and high-definition signals delivered by stations owned by the broadcast group.

Nexstar owns, operates, programs or provides sales and other services for 50 TV stations in 29 markets. Those stations operate in Illinois, Indiana, Maryland, Missouri, Montana, Texas, Pennsylvania, Louisiana, Arkansas, Alabama and New York.

Meanwhile, DIRECTV said Thursday that customers in the Little Rock-Pine Bluff, Ark., area can now receive locals in high-def. Little Rock channels available in HD are KATV/ABC, KTHV/CBS, KLRT/FOX and KARK/NBC.

DIRECTV said it posted strong results across its suite of NBCU enhanced features during the two-week Olympic Games from Beijing, including big numbers for NBCU's Olympics on Demand, the Olympic Interactive platform and the DVR scheduler service.

DIRECTV's interactive platform for NBCU's coverage of the Olympics generated more than 17 million impressions among 1.8 million interactive customers who used the service, the satellite TV company said. The most popular features included the interactive Olympic Guide, Medal Count and Today's Trivia, which included daily news and results from the Games.

In addition to the interactive platform, NBCU was the No. 1 viewed programmer on the DIRECTV on Demand platform, while more than half of the top 20 downloaded programs were also Olympic-related titles from NBC, the company said. The DIRECTV VOD service offered a dedicated NBC Olympic channel that showcased more than 500 titles from NBCU, in both standard and high-def.

According to press accounts, not much happened during Thursday's hearing centered on the continuing patent infringement dispute between TiVo and EchoStar/DISH Network.

The U.S. District Judge presiding over the legal matter made no moves on the case, and didn't schedule any follow-up hearings. The litigation is in what's being called the penalty phase, and the initial hearing Thursday wasn't expected to produce much of any new developments.

At issue is whether DISH has complied with an injunction after a federal court found its DVR technology violated two TiVo patents. In addition to the U.S. District Court case in Texas, DISH has taken the matter to a Delaware court and to the U.S. Supreme Court.

There has been some spin on the legal items.

In a statement, TiVo reminded observers that the court is considering the arguments and that the company remains "confident in the outcome." In regulatory filings and statements, DISH has stated that the company was happy with an appeals court ruling that sided with the DBS service on TiVo's hardware claims but disappointed with the court's decision relating to TiVo's software claims.

After folks in the multiplatform industry spent the Labor Day weekend at baseball games, barbecues and outdoor parties, or taking shelter from the rain and wind delivered by Hurricane Gustav, it was back to work for the business on Tuesday.

And there was a lot of business, and ongoing industry speculation, during the abbreviated week.

For starters, Liberty Media announced plans to split off Liberty Entertainment, the entity holding key properties such as Starz and Liberty's controlling stake in DIRECTV. Some said making the tracking stock into an asset-backed security could eventually lead to a vehicle that allows Liberty to acquire all of the satellite TV giant.

That was not the only suggestion surrounding Liberty Media's latest move.

John Malone's longer term plan could include selling the DIRECTV asset to - can you believe it - AT&T. Given the ongoing struggles for the telco giant, including steady landline losses, "we believe there is increased likelihood that they (AT&T) could be interested in acquiring DIRECTV," said Tom Eagan of Collins Stewart.

Funny how no satellite TV service can dodge any of the telco takeover rumors. Once it was DISH at the center of all that AT&T speculation … now it's the other DBS company. My, how things change … and don't change.

In another development, Google announced plans offer its own internet browser. Anything that challenges Microsoft's Internet Explorer is good for consumers. But folks can expect a lot of scrutiny of Google's "Chrome," especially from privacy and antitrust observers.

That's my speculation, anyway.

And while it's good news that the Gulf Coast escaped a lot of devastation from Hurricane Gustav, those in the programming business continue to conduct themselves in a questionable manner when these big storms hit the nation.

Sending reporters out into the field to cover a hurricane is one thing. But asking viewers to send in video (such as CNN's iReport) is asking for a lot of trouble. Viewers shouldn't be encouraged to go outside in the eye of the storm … they should be encouraged to seek shelter.

And now that another storm is taking aim at the Carolinas, all eyes in the multiplatform world will be watching Wilmington, N.C., for more than just the digital TV switch that the mid-sized market will be making Monday.

BlizzCon 2008, Blizzard Entertainment's gaming convention focused on the global player communities that surround its Warcraft, Diablo and StarCraft game universes, will be televised live in high-def Oct. 10-11 as a pay-per-view package available exclusively to DIRECTV customers. As part of the push, DIRECTV is running a promotion, available through the BlizzCon website (http://www.blizzcon.com/dtv), offering the pay-per-view event free to new customers who sign up for DIRECTV by Sept. 30. Current customers will be able to order the event beginning Sept. 28 for $39.95.

Telecoms Sans Frontieres, a organization that delivers critical telecommunications needs in areas devastated by conflict or natural disasters, said AT&T will mark the 10th anniversary of the group through the placement of the TSF logo on the headrest of the AT&T Williams race car. The car and emblem will make an appearance during the Belgium Grand Prix weekend. Sept. 5-7.