Is this all “round dish hysteria?”

If you’re an avid reader of this blog, you already know that DIRECTV will be ceasing all (or at least most) SD programming in 2019. More importantly, the round dish you’ve got now will probably stop working, and the standard-definition-only equipment you’ve been holding onto for at least five years will definitely stop working.

If you read this blog a lot (first of all thank you and) it’s probably all beginning to seem like hysteria to you. You might think I’m banging this drum just a little too hard.

Except you, my faithful roughly-1-million-readers, you’re the smart ones. You represent about 4% of the DIRECTV audience, and you’re probably more likely to be the 4% most informed. About 40% of DIRECTV customers still have at least one standard-definition receiver and it’s likely that as many as 10% of DIRECTV customers — 2.5 million households, a group larger than the entire subscriber base of many cable companies — are still standard-definition ONLY. It may be a little annoying to you folks on the cutting edge, but I’m trying to reach those other people, the ones who don’t live or die by their choice of receiver.

And you can help.

Start talking about it at random. I don’t mean that you should look like some sort of social outcast, but if you happen to know a friend with a round dish, tell him or her that it’s time to upgrade. Tell him or her about The Solid Signal Blog and how there are all sorts of resources there (and fun stuff to read too) and how you can get a deal on new equipment for almost nothing. Plus, you don’t want to be stuck in the rush of people who will be upgrading on the day after they lose their service.

And while you’re at it, pass this little bit of wisdom along: No matter how much we’d all like it to happen, the deals are not going to get any better than they are now. Why? Because it’s already possible for many people to get totally free upgrades to their existing DIRECTV systems. They’re not going to offer you anything more than that. If you wait the only thing that will happen is that you’ll be stuck on line with everyone else who waited, and who knows when the installers will get to you. Tell your friends that it makes a whole lot more sense to simply take care of things now while there are still a lot of installation professionals who have time to take care of you.

So yeah, I do want to apologize to my avid readers for banging on this drum a lot, especially since I know you all have already upgraded. I know it can be a little annoying. So help a blogger out — get the word to the people who need it, and if no one needs an HD upgrade, I won’t have to blog about it!

About the Author

Stuart Sweet
Stuart Sweet is the editor-in-chief of The Solid Signal Blog and a "master plumber" at Signal Group, LLC. He is the author of over 10,000 articles and longform tutorials including many posted here. Reach him by clicking on "Contact the Editor" at the bottom of this page.