ViaSat will launch sales of DirecTV, bundling the video service...
ViaSat will launch sales of DirecTV, bundling the video service with its Exede satellite-based broadband, Lisa Scalpone, vice president-marketing, told us. Which DirecTV packages Exede will be bundled with hasn’t been finalized and pricing hasn’t been set, she said. But…
Sign up for a free preview to unlock the rest of this article
Timely, relevant coverage of court proceedings and agency rulings involving tariffs, classification, valuation, origin and antidumping and countervailing duties. Each day, Trade Law Daily subscribers receive a daily headline email, in-depth PDF edition and access to all relevant documents via our trade law source document library and website.
the agreement follows Dish Network launching dishNET earlier this fall using ViaSat’s ViaSat-1, the same satellite that’s providing the Exede service. DishNET is being bundled with Dish Network packages, including America’s Top 100. Despite ViaSat providing the network for dishNET, there isn’t conflict in it also having a bundling deal with DirecTV, Scalpone said. DishNET also uses EchoStar’s Hughes Communications’ EchoStar-17 satellite for its service. Dish “is a great partner” and the pact with DirecTV “is just a separate thing,” Scalpone said. “I don’t think there is any change from the current relationship” between ViaSat and Dish. DirecTV officials weren’t available for comment. While many Dish Network dealers, who sell Exede, also will likely carry dishNET, Scalpone doesn’t expect much change in distribution. “I think Dish had a lot of dealers selling Exede and I don’t know that Oct. 1 changed anything,” said Scalpone, referring to the dishNET launch date. Meanwhile, ViaSat introduced an Exede brand advertising campaign on the Root regional sports network that delivers West Virginia University sports and the Mike Tomlin Show in western Pennsylvania and West Virginia, Scalpone said. The TV spot, which first aired Oct. 11, is gradually being rolled to other markets as Exede seeks to raise its profile, Scalpone said. The TV ads will reach a “critical mass” of the 210 U.S. designated market areas, but won’t reach all of them, Scalpone said. Exede recently increased the monthly data cap on its entry-level package to 10 GB from 7.5 GB and has implemented some “performance tweaks” so that subscribers get “well over” 12 Mbps download speeds during peak periods, Scalpone said. ViaSat has postponed introducing VoIP for its Exede customers to Q1 from Q4 as it focuses on brand advertising, Scalpone said.