I've had DirecTv for 7 years and is has only gone out on me 2 times for about 5 minutes each time during very hard rains with lightning. They will have on-demand soon and the customer service is way better than cable in my opinion.

The claim of 400 channels include HD PPV and other channels that may be redundant. Soon(2-5 years), almost every channel will be in HD so I would choose my provider based on customer service and features. If you have dsl from at&t you get a directv discount but if you have cable internet, cable tv service might be a better deal. If you have charter in you area, I wouldn't even bother with giving them any consideration because the have 0 customer service and all their workers seem to be dumb as rocks. Comcast is much better.

A couple of good links

http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post...s-by-2009.html

http://www.tvpredictions.com/