ROANOKE TIMES 

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: FRIDAY, July 1, 1994                   TAG: 9407010050
SECTION: CURRENT                    PAGE: NRV2   EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY 
SOURCE: New River Valley bureau (Rick Lindquist)
DATELINE: FLOYD                                 LENGTH: Medium

FLOYD DIRECTV SATELLITE SYSTEM OPERATIONAL

The future is now in Floyd County. Jim Newell, president of Citizens Communications Corp., reports that the firm's small-dish DirecTv direct broadcast satellite service is "up and running," albeit a bit behind its original April 1 target date.

"This is digital TV for the first time," said Newell, whose company is the local franchisee for DirecTv, a national service. To handle anticipated demand, Citizens Communications Corp. is taking over the former Sears building in Floyd. A grand opening is set for July 14.

When it announced the DirecTv service earlier this year, the company - a subsidiary of the Floyd County Telephone Cooperative - promised all the comforts of cable television to unwired suburban and rural dwellers, but with high-quality, digital pictures and without a large backyard satellite dish.

The DirecTv system uses an 18-inch diameter fixed dish, small enough to mount on a window ledge. For the dish and a receiver-decoder - which the company will install - costs range from $700 for the basics to $1,300 for one that lets you watch different channels on separate sets. Installation is an additional $100 to $200.

Right now, Newell said there are "fewer than a dozen" customers, but he said he's got a sign-up list and "approximately 200 deposits" from those who want the service, which is beamed from the high-power satellite DBS-1, launched last year. The main holdup right now, he said, is equipment availability.

Customers will be able to see about 20 channels at first, including major affiliates for NBC, CBS and ABC. Viewers also will be able to tune in CNN, The Disney Channel, The Discovery Channel, Country Music Television and others. Premium channels will be available on a pay-per-view basis, Newell said.

DirecTv hopes to eventually bring dozens of channels to subscribers at comparable cost and greater convenience and picture quality than big-dish satellite systems.

A joint venture involving GM Hughes Electronics and the National Rural Telecommunications Cooperative - a consortium of rural and suburban power and telephone companies - DirecTv plans to offer approximately 150 channels after a second satellite goes up in December. Programming is beamed to the satellite from a site in Colorado.

"Li'l ol' Floyd has it," Newell said. "They don't have it in Roanoke." 


 by CNB