I've been a DirecTV subscriber since about one month after they rolled out the service. I've added the second NAM for the second satellite to get more local channels, and then I added the third NAM for the third bird to get HD. However, the number of HD channels has been pretty low (until the recent NFL in HD action this fall). Now, DirecTV has announced that they are going to have a massive 1500 HD channels by 2007.

So, the real news is that DirecTV 10 and 11, will add 1000 local HD channels and over 150 national HD channels in 2007.

In the mean time, Spaceway 1 and 2, to be launched early next year, will bring 500 HD channels to the viewing public by mid-year 2005. This means, you guessed it, local HD via satellite. No more messing with the annoying antennas that I've been messing with our trying to decide whether to pay an arm and 2 legs for the Cable and Digital Cable just to get HD channels (why can't we break those out... somebody call congress!).

An interesting note is that the spaceway birds were recently modified to do HD. Previously, they were supposed to be Internet only satellites.