Little People, Big Show

If you haven’t had a chance to catch the TLC channel’s reality television show entitled “Little People, Big World” you’re missing out on big entertainment. This TLC series that debuted in March of 2006, and is now currently in its fourth season on DirecTV’s channel 280 (or 1280 for the handy Video On Demand version), and is about a special family of six, of which half its members have dwarfism. . The parents Matt and Amy, as well as one child, Zach, are little people, whereas the other three children, Jeremy, Jacob, and Molly are all of average height.

Throughout the series, the viewer gets to see the daily lives of the Roloff family, who live on a fully functional thirty four acre pumpkin farm in Helvetia, Oregon. Since the success of “Little People, Big World”, Roloff Farms has seen such an increase in visitor traffic (30,000 visitors during the 2006 pumpkin season alone) that Washington County had to temporarily shut down the roadway that was leading to gridlock.

One of the most original aspects of this show is that while it deals with the daily challenges of everyday life for the little people in the Roloff family, it doesn’t feel exploitative or opportunistic. There’s your typical family drama, regarding finances, children being children and shopping excursions as well. Although the little people in the family have to do things slightly different than full sized folks, you won’t hear them complain.

In late October of 2006, Jacob Roloff and his friend were both severely injured in a farming related accident that resulted in high-risk surgery for Jacob to remove a small piece of skull from his brain when a pumpkin-launching machine discharged early.

Although camera crews did not catch the incident, the moments that followed the accident led to one of the most nail-biting season finale situations on DirecTV. Although Jacob and his friend both recovered fully, the event was one in many exciting events on this well-rounded show that you shouldn’t miss.

RFD-TV: Good Stuff For Rural Folk

Are you a member of the growing population of rural citizens? RFD-TV, known as “Rural Free Delivery TV” could be just for you. This DirecTV satellite television channel is solely dedicated to bringing rural and country homeowners full programming that covers rural concerns, issues, as well as entertainment shows.

Stationed physically at Northstar Studios in Nashville, Tennessee, and airing on DirecTV channel 345, RFD-TV has been the leading rural television channel since its launch in December of 2000. When it comes to the network slogan “Rural America’s Most Important Network”, it never fails to deliver on its promise. From agricultural TV shows and reports, to music and even equine concerns, RFD-TV covers a lot of ground.

One of the biggest contributors to the success of this network is the ever controversial, albeit extremely entertaining, “Imus in the Morning” radio show that is broadcast early morning from 6amto 9am during the week. Don Imus, the man behind the show’s namesake is the main host on this talk show that covers many news and public interest stories with full commentary, and even a news ticker at the bottom of the screen that shows the daily news.

Many will be happy to hear of the reunion and new broadcasting of the “Crook & Chase” show as well as so many other shows including “America’s Heartland”, “Prairie Farm Report”, “The Cattle Show”, “Best of America By Horseback”, “Hee Haw”, “The Porter Wagoner Show”, and “Pop! Goes The Country”, to name just a few. Live auctions of all sorts appear on more than one show in RFD-TV’s programming lineup and are just one more reason this satellite television channel has the perfect balance of entertainment and information appreciated by those of us in far out country places.

Let the ReelzChannel Reel You In

The ReelzChannel network, owned my Hubbard Broadcasting Corporation, is a novel idea for a satellite television channel; it offers a true behind the scenes look at movies and the myriad of people that help to bring them to audiences. Ever wonder how certain movie stunts are done, or how Michael Bay got his start directing? The ReelzChannel is just for you, grab a director’s chair and settle in.

For movie buffs, film lovers, and aspiring directors or actors, the ReelzChannel network is the one stop shop on television for all things pertaining to the entertainment industry, and the films it produces. The independently owned and operated ReelzChannel has up to date information on TV shows on cable television, movies that are currently in theaters and the latest DVD releases as well. And for those that want to stay on top of the industry, there’s a movie and TV news update every hour.

Airing on DirecTV’s channel 238, the ReelzChannel network includes stellar programming such as a series titled “The Directors”, a feature show that different filmmakers, their process, work, individual profiles and explains how they’ve affected the film world.

The ReelzChannel is also now current home to the cult hit “The Critic”, the animated series about a film critic named Jay Sherman (voice acted by Jon Lovitz). This series, with only 23 episodes to its name, is a must-see for anyone who enjoys “The Family Guy” or “The Simpsons”.

Since the beginning of 2009, The ReelzChannel has added a few select films to its Friday night line-up of shows, which is just another reason that any movie lovers, makers, and watchers can enjoy this network as THE channel to turn to for entertainment and film news. If you aren’t a current satellite television subscriber, you should definitely check out some DirecTV deals for the best service and value.

Swing Into Spring With DirecTV’s Tennis Channel

Get ready to watch all of your favorite tennis players and tournaments in sharp, vibrant high definition broadcasting. The Tennis Channel has offered subscribers 24 hour, unbeatable tennis coverage and programming since 2003. You can expect to find high quality coverage of live tournaments, up to the minute news, interviews, and even tennis tip and skill instruction.

The tennis channel doesn’t stop with tennis matches, you’ll also find some programming related to sports such as squash, badminton, racquetball, table tennis and paddle tennis. If you like to watch the tournaments you’ll love the Tennis Channel’s extensive coverage of Wimbledon, the French Open, the Australian Open, the Tennis Channel Open, Davis Cup, Fed Cup and Hopman Cup along with many other events. New to the Tennis Channel this year is coverage of the much anticipated US Open.

In addition to all the high definition games you can catch on the Tennis Channel, you won’t want to miss out on some the popular original series’. Shows like Destination Tennis, Match Makers, Book of Tennis Chronicles, and Real Life on the WTA add interesting and educational programming options to the mix.

If you find yourself missing tennis games because your cable doesn’t have the coverage you want, you’ll definitely want to check out the Tennis Channel. For a great price, you will get 24 hour access to programming that any avid tennis fan would wish for along with the peace of mind that comes from dealing with DirecTV, America’s favorite for satellite programming and award-winning customer service representatives. Plus, with even the most basic DirecTV package you will be provided with many different channels of programming that will make every member of your family satisfied. Check out directstartv.com today to see more of what you’ve been missing and stop the cycle!

TV Does Color – A History Lesson

With all the talk these days about HDTV, flat screen TVs, satellite TV, video games and a myriad of other television related topics, its easy to forget the humble days of black and white television. With this article, I’d like to briefly explain how we got to this world of beautifully vivid color that is today’s modern TV.

Black and white television had not been around for very long before color TV came to be, but not before many failed attempts in the early 40s by a few overseas companies and some corporations like RCA. RCA developed a technique that involved broadcasting the television images separated into the three primary colors, cyan, magenta and yellow, through spinning filters transposed upon the original black and white image, rendering a colored but not truly color, video.

At the same time, rival company CBS had been developing it’s own color system, similar although completely incompatible with RCA’s current color standards. Basically this meant that if one wanting to view a black and white TV show on any other network broadcast, and then a color show on CBS, two completely different television sets would have to be owned. After this issue, the two companies battled it out over channel space, ultra-high frequency (UHF), and a few other technological issues that heavily involved the oversight of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). These events led to a stalling of CBS’s efforts while RCA continued to profit off the sale of thousands of black and white TV sets.

Next time, we’ll discuss the other stumbling blocks tossed in the way of getting color broadcast into our homes, and what technological and legal hurdles had to be traversed to create the world of color we all now enjoy in our movies, satellite TV shows, video games, and other media.

To see all of your shows and movies in the brilliant color capable by today’s technology, check out DirecTV!  They provide the most channels in high definition so that you can get the best performance possible (and your money’s worth) from your modern television.

Will DirecTV Save Show For Fans?

It appears that a program named Moonlight that airs on CBS has met with the chopping block and the fans are fighting back by asking in a big way that Direct TV pick it up.

The program while it might not be the sports event of the year has a following of fans that do not want to see it end and want something done about it and rather than sit and complain about it they have organized to get their Friday night program back.

The program is about a detective who is a vampire, has a girlfriend who is not and solves crimes, often with the help of the vampire community. It is also sandwiched in between two other popular programs that complete the Friday night lineup with solving crimes and dealing with ghosts.

While it might not be a complete night for men it is for women on television, this front is so organized that they have taken their demand to keep this program on the air to DirecTV.

They also have a message board where they not only discuss the program they have a poll to keep it on the air that will be sent to DirecTV who asked for it and would like to know how many of these fans would change to DirecTV should they pick it up like they have other popular programs that were canceled.

This poll has entries for those who have DirecTV Deals already, those who will switch and those who will not change their current provider. The percentage for those who will switch so they can see their favorite Friday nigh program is 71% of the votes.

The fan base within the first twenty-four hours of the poll had more than 1300 voters at Moonlight Line.

There is also a page where fans and non-fans are letting their thoughts be known after an article that let the Internet public know about these fans and their plight. This can be found at Mark’s Sci-Fi / Fantasy Blog.

The big question that is left is what will DirecTV decide, either way it shows DirecTV has their subscribers and future subscribers in mind with their programming line up.

Good News For Spanish Viewers

For the Spanish viewers of DirecTV there are about to be some changes according to reports, the DirecTV Mas package will be having three networks added to the package that are a part of Mexico’s Azteca TV.

There is already Azteca America and these three new networks will be added and will include soccer matches. The new channels will also have more newscasts and novellas they will also have entertainment programs, telenovels that are known as soap operas and morning shows.

These channels will have a mixture of original programming along with rebroadcasts of Mexican content. This is aimed at giving the Hispanic subscribers of DirecTV more channels with more of the programs they want to see including soccer coverage and newscasts.

Parental Control Of The TV

Every parent is concerned what their children might see on television and with a DirecTV receiver there are ways to deal with just what they can see and what they can not see.

In the receivers there is a Lock and Limit feature that can be set to lock children out of channels that have programming that is not for their age group and that the parent does not feel comfortable with them watching.

This feature also has one other advantage that is good for using for everyone including the babysitter. This feature is the ability to limit spending on pay per view programming, by doing this it ensures that there are no pay per view programs unless the pin number is used to authorize using pay pre view.

The same holds true for the blocked channels from the children, while it may not be programming that is suited for them there will be programs and movies that the adults in the household want to see and this is easily done just by putting in a personal identification or pin number.

This is a way of keeping the children safe while watching television and the parents content that they are doing the right thing when it comes to the quality of programs their children watch.

How Does DirecTV Stand In Statistics

In on going yearly research the 2007 American Customer Satisfaction Index, which is done by the University of Michigan Business School, DirecTV Satellite TV was rated higher in customer satisfaction over some of the major cable companies for the past seven years. This has to say something about the service over other providers to this rating that is done by the school rated DirecTV at a score of 67.

While at the same time it rated the cable companies and other satellite providers in their research at 65.

In this research some of the things that are included is customer loyalty and the companies ability to retain customers.

The National Quality Research Center that is located at the Stephen M. Ross Business School at the University of Michigan is where the ACSI as it is known came to be and has for seven years chosen the television provider that scored the best.

Satellite TV on Your PC?

This might sound unbelievable to some television viewers but it seems to be all over the Internet that watching satellite television on a PC is possible with no extra equipment.

This goes along with the old saying if it sounds to good to be true it most likely is and for the most part what is found is channels that will be found on satellite television.

However, the programs that can be watched are not what is playing on your satellite enabled television set; it is selected programs that the channels have decided to give computer users a glimpse of or clips of on running shows.