Directv is an American digital television service provider that broadcasts to almost 20 million customers in the United States and Latin America.  Its major competitors are Dish and local cable television providers.  Directv has always tried to differentiate itself from its competition by offering the best digital programming available in the marketplace.  One way that Directv stands out from its competition is by offering the most HD channels and by offering premier sports packages such as NFL Sunday Ticket.  From a corporate standpoint, Directv has been involved with mergers and acquisitions since its inception.  Most notably, in 2002, Directv's merger with rival Dish was shot down by the FCC and Department of Justice because the government thought that this merger would be unfair for market competition.  Directv's business strategy has always been formulated around retaining customers while gaining new ones through promotions on programming packages.  Last year NFL Sunday Ticket was offered free for new customers while returning customers had to pay $299 in order to have Sunday Ticket for the second year.  This year, Directv is trying to regain some of the former Sunday Ticket patrons by offering a "lite" or "diet" version of the special sports package.  The "lite" version will be offered to customers for $199 but will not include the Redzone channel or certain mobile features.  By the end of September of this year we will be able to see if this strategy has worked or not...