• DirecTV is launching the latest version of its advertising campaign to inform consumers that they can receive DirecTV without a satellite dish.
• Like its cable and satellite competitors, DirecTV has been losing pay-TV customers for some time. The company wants to emphasize its streaming options, which are Internet TV packages.
• The company recently included former NFL star and college football coach Deion Sanders in its advertising campaign ahead of the college football season. DirecTV is putting its sports TV package front and center at a time when live sports promise the highest ratings.

Coach Prime wants to inform consumers that they can receive DirecTV even without a satellite dish.

The company, best known for delivering the traditional television package via satellite dishes mounted on the side walls and roofs of houses, is launching the next edition of its “For the Birds” advertising campaign, joining former NFL star and current college football coach Deion Sanders.

The focus of the advertising campaign: DirecTV is also a streaming company.

As pay-TV providers — both satellite and cable companies — see their customers increasingly moving to streaming, DirecTV is trying to spread the message that its service no longer requires a bulky satellite dish.

“We’ve been selling a streaming product for a while, right? It’s nothing new for us. But a lot of customers didn’t know,” said Vince Torres, DirecTV’s marketing director. “We developed this as an alternative. … We know that 80% of people would rather not have the dish on the side of their house.”

In addition, the company’s research found that 75% of consumers felt DirecTV still required a satellite dish, even though it had a streaming option since 2016, Torres said. “That’s a very, very large percentage of those interested.”

Prime Time

These investigations and the changing media landscape led DirecTV to refocus its marketing efforts – although Torres stressed that the company is still a satellite TV provider and values ​​those customers.

The ad campaign, which launched earlier this year, features pigeons voiced by actors Henry Winkler and Steve Buscemi looking through windows as people watch DirecTV and wondering how it’s possible without a satellite dish on the roof.

The pigeons lament the loss of the bowls. Winkler’s Frank said he “loved doing my business on those things,” while Buscemi’s Bobby joked, “Those bowls kept the rain off our beaks.”

While changes in the media fueled his interest in the commercial, Buscemi said in an interview that he was confident about perfecting the voice and character of a New York pigeon.

“For me, it was more about the creative part,” said Buscemi. “I just found these characters very funny.”

Since the advertising campaign began, the number of potential customers visiting DirecTV’s website has increased by about 50%, Torres said.

Sanders’ addition comes just before one of the busiest times of the year for U.S. sports: It starts with college football and the NFL, followed by the start of the NBA and NHL and the MLB postseason.

Sanders, once known as “Prime Time” in the NFL and now known as “Coach Prime,” coaches the NCAA’s Colorado Buffaloes. He wears a cowboy hat and gold chain and essentially plays himself.

“We have a long history together — dating back to 2011,” Sanders said in an email interview. “It was only fitting that we unite once again. Coach Prime has spread his wings again for DirectTV!”

In a 2011 ad campaign, Sanders was an NFL version of Tinker Bell, wearing a DirecTV football jersey under his wings. Sanders was suspended by strings while filming the commercial, so lending his voice to the pigeon was a very different experience, he said.

Cable cutting

The industry has also changed since Sanders’ last advertising campaign with DirecTV.

Satellite TV providers such as DirecTV and EchoStars Dish were once among the largest providers of TV packages. Competition intensified when cable TV companies began offering broadband connections.

For a while, the solution for satellite companies was to focus on customers in rural areas where cable broadband was scarce, says Craig Moffett, an analyst at MoffettNathanson.

But the rivalry between cable and satellite television for subscribers has waned as many have abandoned the package offer in favor of streaming.

“All of this is happening in the context of the cord-cutting phenomenon and the fact that media companies are moving more and more of their best content, including sports, to streaming platforms, so what’s left of the TV package is no longer as easy to sell,” Moffett said.

According to MoffettNathanson, the first quarter of this year was the worst in terms of subscriber losses in the traditional pay-TV space, with the company estimating that total losses exceeded the 2.37 million mark for the first time.

Although DirecTV’s finances are now private – a result of private equity firm TPG’s acquisition of a 30 percent stake in DirecTV from AT&T in 2021 – the company has about 11 million customers via satellite and streaming, according to people familiar with the matter. MoffettNathanson estimates that DirecTV added more than 20,000 streaming customers earlier this year.

The majority of these customers still have a satellite dish. For DirecTV’s streaming options, consumers can use their own device, such as a Roku, but the company also offers its own hardware, called the Gemini box.

DirecTV offers two streaming options: DirecTV Stream, a no-contract Internet TV package, and DirecTV over the Internet, which requires a signed contract and is only available through the Gemini device.

Based on Antenna’s data, DirecTV Stream has the lowest percentage of gross monthly new subscribers compared to Hulu + Live TV, Philo, Sling TV, and YouTube TV – although it is often among the services with the lowest monthly subscriber loss rate.

“The challenge for consumers today is that it’s increasingly difficult to find what they want to watch,” Torres said of the fragmentation of content across different television and streaming services. “It’s our version of entertainment industry aggression on the road.”

The device allows viewers to switch between streaming apps like Netflix and the DirecTV guide without changing the remote or inputs or leaving apps.

Other pay-TV providers also offer similar options, such as Comcast’s X1 set-top box and the Xumo streaming device, a joint venture between Charter Communications and Comcast.

Stick to sports

DirecTV is also trying to differentiate itself through its focus on sports, which has been a major selling point for the company for some time.

Until the 2023 NFL season, DirecTV has been the sole provider of the Sunday Ticket game package since its launch in 1994. Google’s YouTube TV, a competitor to DirecTV’s streaming options, now owns the rights to Sunday Ticket.

But DirecTV still offers Sunday Ticket to bars, restaurants and other businesses, many of which rely on the subscription, which shows all NFL games outside their market, to attract large crowds.

Yet streaming has also disrupted live sports, the highest-rated television program, with Amazon Prime Video and Netflix offering exclusive NFL games, while traditional media companies have secured exclusive game rights for their growing streaming services.

In the consumer space, DirecTV continues to maintain that it offers the most comprehensive live sports package of any pay-TV and streaming provider. Its streaming offering includes all nationally broadcast games and regional sports networks – a rarity in Internet TV packages.

That’s where Coach Prime comes in before football season, Torres said.

“He’s very recognizable, fun to work with and effective at getting messages across,” Torres said. “When you think about the challenge we face of how we can continue to build on that brand message that we want to get across to the U.S. population, who better to join that herd than Coach Prime.”

Disclosure: Comcast owns NBCUniversal, the parent company of CNBC.