Do Direct-TV and Dish Network satellites have to face in the same direction?

I recently moved and was told by Dish Network that I have no line of site. I was told by a friend that Direct TV has more satellites in orbit so I might be able to receive service through them. What do you think?|||roughly in the same direction. directv has more satellites up there but the majority of the newer ones carry hd programming. the satellites orbit above the equator aimed back towards north america and if you look at the numbers of the sats (in the setup screens) the number tells you how many degrees above the equator that satellite is. usually the dishes will face in a south southeasterly direction. additionally, what you may or may not know, dish and directv share some satellites. i found this out when working in a directv call center, although we were told to never tell customers this. as far as a line of site, the satellites for dish might be in a different position and at your location there might be a building or tree that is blocking the signal whereas a directv dish might be positioned a bit different and get a good lock. one thing to consider also is that you can stand beside your dish and lets say you have one sat at 110 degrees and one at 119 degrees. doesn't sound like a whole lot, but those few inches equate into several hundreds even thousands of miles between the satellites.|||Since both companies' satellites are in orbit around the equator, then they both have to point generally south. Other than that, the dishes are at different latitudinal degrees, and trees and other such obstacles could prevent you from getting one or the other.





Or the first installer was lazy and just didn't want to do the job.|||Try satbeams.com. You can choose a satellite and see its footprint. In North America you will probably be most interested in Ditectv7S at 119w longitude and Echostar XI at 110w. Of course, line of sight concerns may have more to do with obstructions than satellite coverage.|||yes mine follows the sat.