DIRECTV Partners With South by Southwest (SXSW) for First-Ever National Broadcast of the World-Famous Music Festival Exclusively on DIRECTV's Channel 101

DIRECTV Partners With South by Southwest (SXSW) for First-Ever National Broadcast of the World-Famous Music Festival Exclusively on DIRECTV's Channel 101

DIRECTV Presents SXSW Live Featuring an All-Access Pass to the Nation's Greatest Music Festival

LOS ANGELES, Feb. 5 /PRNewswire/ -- For two decades, the SXSW music festival in Austin, Texas has been the industry's best kept secret for breaking new acts such as Franz Ferdinand, Kaiser Chiefs and James Blunt. That's all about to change as DIRECTV, the nation's leading satellite television service provider, teams up with music/entertainment guru Blaze TV to bring the nation's biggest music showcase to national television for the first time in DIRECTV Presents SXSW Live. Exclusively on DIRECTV's Channel 101 (The 101), the special will be broadcast live March 15-17 and feature unprecedented access with upfront performances and behind-the-scenes footage from the three day musical extravaganza.

Last year's event featured more than 1,400 bands played at 60 venues in downtown Austin, Texas. This year proves to provide more action with appearences by Pete Townshend and Rachel Fuller, The Stooges (with Iggy Pop), David Byrne, Ozomatli, Taylor Hicks, Amy Winehouse, Buzzcocks, Interpol, Razorlight, Hot Hot Heat, The Bravery and Booker T.

Blaze TV is working with SXSW to custom-build two state-of-the-art venues exclusively for the SXSW special on The 101. The Lone Star Lounge, with a traditional Texas feel, and modern music club The Bat Bar will be built from the ground up in Austin solely for the live televised performances. Each venue will be filmed using the most up-to-date technology, including multi-camera HD with 5.1 surround sound.

"SXSW has been the music world's best kept secret. It's to the music industry what Sundance is to the film business. You can't move in Austin when SXSW is on, because of the packs of record company reps and producers thronging the venues ... and the list of bands who have been discovered there reads like a Who's Who," said David Hill, DIRECTV'S President of Entertainment. "So we figured that for our customers, the mix of hot established bands and the hot new young bands would make for sensational, unique music programming, the likes of which has never been seen before."

"Blaze TV and SXSW share the same vision for creating content of the highest caliber," stated Roland Swenson, managing director of SXSW. "And that coupled with the media power of DIRECTV will change the face of the festival by bringing it to the masses."

"We are delighted to take part in SXSW, one of the world's truly great festivals," offered Blaze managing director Conor McAnally. "With the innovative production approach we will be taking, we are excited to be able to share the extraordinary performances which SXSW inspires with audiences through DIRECTV."

About SXSW

The SXSW Music and Media Conference showcases hundreds of musical acts from around the globe on over 50 states in downtown Austin. SXSW is the largest single music festival in the U.S., attended by record company and music media executives from all over the world, thus giving attending acts an unparalleled, showcase platform. By day, conference registrants do business in the SXSW Trade Show in the Austin Convention Center and partake of a full agenda of informative, provocative panel discussions featuring hundreds of speakers of international stature. SXSW 2007 will take place March 14-18, 2007. For more information, visit http://2007.sxsw.com/music.

About Blaze TV

Blaze TV, a division of Shout! Factory, was founded in the UK in 1999 to create, produce and market music and entertainment programming to a range of broadcasters throughout the world. Its first major project was CD UK, a live weekly hour-long popular music show which has aired for almost 400 episodes. Blaze opened a Los Angeles office in 2005 and began to produce CD USA for DirecTV in January 2006. The show is now on-air weekly in nearly 100 countries. Working with artists as diverse as U2, Mariah Carey, Eminem, Madonna and Metallica, Blaze TV has produced major specials, including a two-hour concert and live Q&A session surrounding the release of David Bowie's Reality album. Under the guidance of producer/director Conor McAnally, Blaze TV has won 22 major awards to date, including five British Academy Awards and four Royal Television Society Awards.

About DIRECTV, Inc.

DIRECTV, Inc., the nation's leading satellite television service provider, presents the finest television experience available to more than 15.6 million customers through exclusive content, industry-leading customer service (which has surpassed cable for six years running) and superior technologies. Each day, DIRECTV subscribers enjoy over 250 channels of 100% digital picture and sound; exclusive programming and the most comprehensive collection of sports programming available anywhere including NFL SUNDAY TICKET(TM), and MLB EXTRA INNINGS(TM). DIRECTV (NYSE:DTV) also leads the digital television technology revolution with exclusives such as NFL SUNDAY TICKET SuperFan(TM), US Open Interactive and YES Network Interactive and will soon have the capacity to offer up to 150 national channels in HD. For the most up-to-date information on the Company, please visit directv.com.

Source: Blaze TV

CONTACT: Dru Libby, +1-310-248-6143, dlibby@bwr-la.com, for Blaze TV

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