DirecTV is pushing its pay TV bundle — without a satellite dish

Coach Prime wants consumers to know they can watch DirecTV without a satellite dish. 

The company best known for providing the traditional TV bundle through satellite dishes posted on the sides of houses and on top of buildings is rolling out the next iteration of its ad campaign, “For the Birds,” with NFL star-turned-college football coach Deion Sanders joining the flock.  

The focus of the ad campaign: DirecTV is a streaming company, too.

As pay TV distributors — both satellite and cable companies — have seen customers flee for streaming, DirecTV is trying to get the message out that a clunky satellite dish is no longer needed for its service. 

“We’ve been selling a streaming product for some time, right? It’s not new to us. But many customers didn’t know,” said Vince Torres, chief marketing officer at DirecTV. “We built this as an alternative. … We know that 80% of people prefer not to put the dish on the side of their house.”

Further, the company’s research showed 75% of consumers thought a satellite dish was still required for DirecTV even though it’s had a streaming option since 2016, Torres said. “That’s a very, very large percentage of prospects.”

This research and shapeshifting media landscape led DirecTV to refocus its marketing efforts — even as Torres contends the company is still a satellite TV provider and values those customers.

The ad campaign that rolled out earlier this year features pigeons voiced by actors Henry Winkler and Steve Buscemi who look through windows while people are watching DirecTV, wondering how it’s possible without a satellite dish on their rooftop. 

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

While the changes in media played into his interest in the commercial, Buscemi said in an interview he was sold on perfecting the voice and character of a New York City pigeon.

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

There’s been a roughly 50% increase in prospects coming to DirecTV’s website since the launch of the ad campaign, Torres said.

Sanders’ inclusion comes just before one of the busiest times of the year for U.S. sports: beginning with college football and the NFL, followed by the start of NBA and NHL, as well as MLB’s postseason.

Sanders, once known as “Prime Time” in the NFL and now known as “Coach Prime,” as the coach of the NCAA’s Colorado Buffaloes, dons a cowboy hat and gold chain, essentially playing himself.

“We have a long history TOGETHER – dating all the way back to 2011,” Sanders said in an email interview. “It was only fitting for us to reunite once again. Coach Prime put his wings back on for DirectTV!”

In a 2011 ad campaign, Sanders was an NFL version of Tinker Bell, wearing a DirecTV football jersey under his wings. Sanders had been suspended on strings when filming that commercial, so voicing the pigeon has been a different experience, he said.

The industry has shapeshifted since Sanders’ last ad campaign with DirecTV, too.

Satellite TV providers like DirecTV and EchoStar’s Dish were once some of the biggest distributors of the TV bundle. The competition ramped up when cable TV companies began offering broadband.

For a while, the solution for satellite companies was then to concentrate on customers in rural areas, where cable broadband was sparsely available, said Craig Moffett, an analyst at MoffettNathanson.

But the rivalry between cable and satellite over pay TV subscribers has dissipated since streaming has caused many to ditch the bundle.

“All of this is in the context of the cord-cutting phenomenon, and the media companies taking more and more of their best content, including sports, and putting it on streaming platforms, so what’s left of the TV package isn’t very good to sell,” Moffett said.

The first quarter of this year was the worst ever for traditional pay TV subscriber losses, according to MoffettNathanson, which estimated that total losses topped 2.37 million for the first time ever.

Although DirecTV’s financials are now private — a result of private equity firm TPG acquiring a 30% stake in DirecTV from AT&T in 2021 — the company has roughly 11 million customers across satellite and streaming, according to people familiar with the matter. MoffettNathanson estimates DirecTV added more than 20,000 streaming customers earlier this year.

The majority of those customers still have a satellite dish. For DirecTV’s streaming options, consumers can use their own device, like a Roku. But the company also provides its own hardware, called a Gemini box.

DirecTV offers two streaming options — DirecTV Stream, a contract-free internet TV bundle, and DirecTV via internet, which requires a signed contract and is only available through the Gemini device.

Based on Antenna data, DirecTV Stream has the smallest percentage of monthly gross additions when compared with Hulu + Live TV, Philo, Sling TV and YouTube TV — although it often is among the services with the lowest monthly rate of subscriber losses.

“The challenge for consumers now is that it’s increasingly difficult to find what you want to watch,” Torres said about the division of content among various TV and streaming services. “It’s our version of the entertainment industry’s road rage.”

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

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

DirecTV also tries to set itself apart with a focus on sports, a main selling point for the company for some time.

Until the 2023 NFL season, DirecTV had been the sole provider of the “Sunday Ticket” package of games since its inception in 1994. Google‘s YouTube TV, a competitor to DirecTV’s streaming options, is now the owner of the rights to “Sunday Ticket.”

But DirecTV still offers “Sunday Ticket” to bars, restaurants and other businesses, many of which rely on the subscription that shows all out-of-market NFL games to draw big crowds.

Nonetheless, streaming has also shaken up live sports, the highest rated TV programming. Amazon’s Prime Video and Netflix have exclusive NFL games, while legacy media companies have nabbed exclusive game rights for their growing streaming services.

On the residential consumer front, DirecTV is still pushing the idea that it has the most complete live sports package offered by a pay TV and streaming provider. Its streaming offering includes all nationally broadcast games and regional sports networks — a rarity for internet TV bundles.

This is where Coach Prime comes into play ahead of football season, Torres said.

“He’s highly recognizable, he’s fun to work with, and he’s effective at getting messages out,” said Torres. “When you think about this challenge that we face, how do we continue to build on this brand message that we’re trying to educate the U.S. population with, who better to join the flock than Coach Prime.”

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