June 17, 1994: DirecTV is first introduced into the market to residents of Jackson, Miss. LeMoyne Martin purchases the first digital satellite system at Cowboy Maloney’s Electric City.
October 12, 1995: DirecTV wins its first technical Emmy Award for DBS technology. The company also wins Emmys in 1997 and 2000.
November 1995: DirecTV activates its 1 millionth customer.
October 28, 1998: DirecTV broadcasts the first coast-to-coast high-definition television demonstration.
April 28, 1999: DirecTV completes the acquisition of Primestar Inc. and begins to transition 2.3 million Primestar customers to DirecTV.
May 20, 1999: DirecTV completes the acquisition of U.S. Satellite Broadcasting and surpasses the 7 million customer mark.
November 29, 1999: DirecTV commences local broadcast network channels in its first two local channel markets — New York and Los Angeles.
October 2000: DirecTV introduces to the marketplace the combination DirecTV digital video recorder with TiVo that combines DirecTV programming with TiVo service.
June 28, 2001: DirecTV activates its 10 millionth customer.
September 5, 2002: DirecTV earns the first of two successive J.D. Power and Associates No. 1 rankings for customer satisfaction among cable and satellite subscribers.
December 22, 2003: News Corp. completes its acquisition of 34% of Hughes Electronics Corp. (renamed DirecTV Group Inc. in March 2004), with Chase Carey as president and CEO and Eddy Hartenstein as vice chairman of DirecTV Group. Mitchell Stern is named president and CEO of DirecTV, Inc. Rupert Murdoch becomes chairman of DirecTV Group board of directors.
May 4, 2004: DirecTV 7S satellite is successfully launched, enabling DirecTV to significantly expand the number of markets where it offers local channels.
DirecTV also announces an all-time record for customer additions in the first quarter of 2004 and has more than 12.6 million customers through the end of the first quarter of 2004.
June 17, 2004: DirecTV commemorates its 10th anniversary.
