Interactive Enhancements Used By Nearly 66 Percent of NCAA MEGA MARCH MADNESS Customers with Interactive Set-top boxes; Eighty-five percent Used Game Mix Multiple Times

EL SEGUNDO, Calif., March 22, 2006 – DIRECTV was keeping its own score during the first two rounds of the NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Championship, reporting that nearly 66 percent of its NCAA MEGA MARCH MADNESS™ package customers who had interactive receivers used the new array of on-demand interactive features to keep track of their favorite teams, scores and bracket predictions.

DIRECTV’s exclusive 2006 DIRECTV NCAA MEGA MARCH MADNESS™ package of the first three rounds of the tournament, supplementing CBS Sports’ exclusive coverage of the entire tournament, offered new on-demand features this year for customers with interactive receivers. Together with CBS Sports’ coverage, the NCAA MEGA MARCH MADNESS package enables only DIRECTV customers to see virtually all the tournament games on TV.

The new enhancements include: Game Mix, featuring up to four game broadcasts on one screen allowing viewers with a DIRECTV interactive receiver to easily view and move between games; On Demand Scoreboard that is viewable via an on-screen L-wrap application at the push of a button on all four game channels; and the On Demand Bracket feature that provides an interactive on-screen overlay allowing viewers to view the current state of the NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Championship bracket, input their own bracket predictions and track their progress. A DIRECTV interactive receiver is required to make bracket picks and see scores from other games in progress while watching another game.

DIRECTV recorded the following individual interactions per feature: more than 49 percent used the Game Mix channel; more than 30 percent pulled up on-screen scores; and more than 36 percent used the tournament bracket feature to make and follow their bracket picks.

DIRECTV’s usage results show that customers frequently returned to the interactive services. For example, 85 percent of customer with interactive set-top boxes used Game Mix multiple times; 64 percent accessed on-screen scores more than once; and 67 percent used the bracket pick feature multiple times.

"These results tell us that viewers value the interactive viewing experience and a majority clearly depended on the new on-demand features to keep track of their games, scores and bracket picks,” said Eric Shanks, executive vice president, DIRECTV Entertainment. "With the success of the NFL and the Olympics interactive enhancements, and now the NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Championship, we will continue to expand the use of this technology and take fans beyond the traditional viewing experience as we broadcast other major sporting events.”

The NCAA MEGA MARCH MADNESS package provides residential customers exclusive access to all live out-of-market games – up to 37 games featured on channels 705-708 and not carried on local CBS stations – from the first/-second rounds and regional semifinal round of the NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Championship, supplementing CBS Sports’ exclusive network coverage of the entire tournament.

About DIRECTV, Inc.
DIRECTV, Inc. is the nation’s leading digital television service provider with more than 15 million customers. DIRECTV and the Cyclone Design logo are registered trademarks of DIRECTV, Inc. DIRECTV (NYSE: DTV) is a world-leading provider of digital multichannel television entertainment services. DIRECTV is approximately 37 percent owned by News Corporation.

About NCAA
The NCAA is a membership-led nonprofit association of colleges and universities committed to supporting academic and athletic opportunities for more than 360,000 student-athletes at more than 1,000 member colleges and universities. Each year, more than 49,000 student-athletes compete in NCAA championships in Division I, II and III sports.