Archive for July 15th, 2009

I’ve been visiting my Dad for the past week or so, and I’ve been watching his DirecTV. (When you’re visiting your parent, you’re activities are pretty much limited to what they do. He watches a LOT of TV.)

What’s interesting to me is the dichotomy between the ads from both DirecTV and Dish Network, versus the experience of actually using their services. Since I have Dish Network at home, I have a fair amount of perspective now on both systems.

Lately, Dish has been marketing themselves as a “cheaper” but every bit as full-featured alternative to DirectTV.  That’s definitely an “Avis” strategy (you know…”we’re number two, so we try harder”). I would therefore assume that Dish is running second to DirecTV in sales. (If they aren’t they need to take their marketing team out back and shoot them – this is NOT the right strategy for a market leader.) Dish, on the other hand, markets themselves against cable systems. I’m a big believer in satellite – I’ve had universally crappy service from cable, and there’s no way they can match satellite’s prices, largely due to their inherent disadvantage due to their fixed infrastructure costs.

What’s interesting, is that from their ads, aside from price, there’s little differentiate Dish and DirecTV from each other. That is, of course, until you use them.

As a user interface specialist, I’ve been underwhelmed forever and a day with Dish Network’s clunky U/I. I see so many things I could do better. I’ve been told that DirecTV’s is better. Not sure I agree with that. On the whole, I think the Dish Network’s remote is easier and more intuitive to use. Certainly, the modal nature of the DirecTV remote is a barrier to use – until you get used to it. On the plus side, DirecTV’s menus seem to allow more customization. On the negative side, that customization (which is largely to limit the lists to specific channels)  is harder to figure out, and once you have it customized, it’s difficult to switch modes (back to seeing everything, rather than just the ones you picked for your custom list). What’s interesting is that both systems could stand a U/I reworking, and neither seems to be overly-interested in what is an essential aspect of their product.

So which one is “better”? I don’t know. From a usability point of view, I’d say Dish wins. From a marketing point of view, DirecTV has better ads, and a market-leading strategy.  (I also worry about the DVR offered by Dish, and the fact that they will eventually lose their battle with TiVO, and I’ll probably be out one DVR.) This is largely a case where the edge in marketing (by DirecTV) probably translates to a sales lead – but not because of a superior product – but slightly better marketing.