What is “private viewing?”

Everyone knows that DIRECTV is in bars and restaurants. After all, DIRECTV does a great job of helping those businesses with promotions. What most folks don’t know is that there is another side to DIRECTV for Business, and it’s called “Private Viewing.” Most businesses don’t have large areas where regular people hang out. Think about your office. You may have a reception area or a waiting room, but if you’re like most people, your workplace is private. In other words, if you don’t work there, you don’t come there.

That’s Private Viewing.

It means, putting DIRECTV service in areas that aren’t designed to serve the general public. The thing is, it’s cheaper than you would expect. DIRECTV’s Private viewing packages are priced pretty much the same as your DIRECTV packages at home. That means you can put DIRECTV in the lunchroom, in the boss’s office, even in the warehouse. It’s a cheap way to increase morale and it keeps people from leaving the office for lunch. It can even make people want to work on the weekend, especially when football’s on.

The key to keeping your costs down is these private areas. When you’re showing TV programming in a public area, you have to deal with copyright issues. You know how sports programs all say “this broadcast is property of the NFL and may not be reproduced or retransmitted” or something like that? They mean they want more money if you’re going to show their program in a bar, restaurant, waiting room, that sort of thing.

Does private viewing cost more?

There’s a whole system for figuring out how much extra you have to pay for the public stuff, but it doesn’t come into play at all if all you’re doing is showing DIRECTV programs to your employees at lunch.

In fact, private viewing packages generally cost almost exactly the same as the packages for residential DIRECTV customers, and the packages are very up to date. You’ll get a great experience, just the same as if you were home.

Is there any other difference?

In most cases, you can’t use DVRs, even in private viewing situations. There are situations where you can use an HR24 DVR but Genie is strictly off limits in business packages. It always comes down to making sure that you absolutely, positively, cannot pause, record, or show any content in a public space.

Remember these aren’t AT&T’s rules. These rules are based in federal copyright law. It all has to do with making sure that the people who create and distribute that content are getting their fair share. AT&T’s a fairly button-down company and they would rather follow strict rules rather than risk paying a lot of money in a lawsuit.

Ready for TV in your office?

Why not give Signal Connect a call at 1-888-233-7563 and see how you can add DIRECTV service at work for less than you think? If it’s after hours, just fill in the form below and one of our representatives will get back to you. It’s usually just a day or so.

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.