See thread title. I’m wondering if my receiver is just picking up the signal from the satellite, or if it is sending information back as well? Do they know who is listening to what, and how many are tuned to each channel?
Nope, the radios are just passive receivers.
Receiving signal from a satellite is fairly easy. Sending a signal to a satellite is significantly a bit harder. Having one of those endpoints in motion relative to the other adds several levels of difficulty.
Yes, THEY know where you are and they can see what you’re doing as well.
Or, as the others said.
On one of DirecTV’s “Active Channels”, they give stats for what is the most popular program right now, split into various categories, and even time zones. To do that, wouldn’t they have to acquire some sort of data from the satellite receivers? Most DirecTV receivers are stationary, unlike Sirius/XM, but many are mobile.
And, as further illustration, if you buy an XM radio, you have to call and give them the unique code from the radio, let’s say it’s 1234, and set up an account. Then over the next day or so the satellites send out a “hey radio 1234, they paid, now start working” signal, which it receives and starts working. There used to be an XM page where you could login and resend the signal if it missed that activation signal or the radio stopped working after, I dunno, being unplugged too long or something.
If there was two way communication, the activation process would probably be different and simpler.
I don’t know about modern receivers, but from my experience with DirecTV about 10 years ago the receivers needed a phone line connection for “upstream” stuff like pay-per-view.
I think that direct tv connects to your phone line or internet connection to authorize the box and allow you to get on demand movies etc. So they could be getting their stats from that.
:smack: I forgot about that. Ours no longer use the phone line, they exclusively use the internet for on-demand, pay-per-view, etc.
Sirius/XM also has a streaming service which is an additional $3 or $4 per month. Any smart device i.e. computer, phone, Sonos, etc can play the stream. In this instance the company knows exactly what you are listening to and since the streaming channels mimic the satellite channels, it is how Sirius/XM gauge the popularity of any given station.
The car/home receivers do not transmit anything back to the mothership. They have no idea what you are listening to.
The streaming service also has additional channels and an on-demand feature. I like it a lot.
Jim Norton is a sick F&$*#r.
WHAT ??? Motion has nothing to do with it.
Its just a matter of expense, its expensive to add a transmitters into the receivers, and to have a receiver up in the satellite, and to own the license for the frequencies in use.