Does my rate increase go to paying Christina Aguilera for that new D* tv commercial?

Write the head of marketing.

 

Let's say that DirecTV paid $1MM to produce the commercial. And they have at least 15MM subs. That comes to under 7 cents per sub for the cost of the commercial. You're seriously complaining about 7 cents???

This is similar reasoning to those who seem to support charging for broadband service by usage: that by charging some subscribers more, others' bills might go down. But as this thought about broadband pricing is wrong so is one about DirecTV's advertising.

Let's take a look at why they make such commercials. DirecTV needs to attract subscribers so they advertise. By increasing their subscriber count, DirecTV is able to enjoy further economies of scale in that the cost per subscriber can go down. How is this possible? There are certain fixed costs (the costs of facilities, staff, running the satellites, etc) which are not proportional to the number of subscribers. As subs increase, these costs per sub decrease. In essence, by advertising, they're reducing the cost to provide the service to you and may be the difference between a $5/month and $4/month increase in costs next year.

 

Tell me you're kidding...Or were you just upset you couldn't find the Hacky-Sack finals in HD?

I'm not sure if I'm that 'metric' either, though I do choose DirecTV to receive all their offerings of the pro sports packages and I found the spot funny.

 

It isn't funny to YOU, because you didn't even know that that was James Lipton. They don't try and make every commercial appeal to YOU. They have different commercial aimed at different audiences. Do you know anything about Advertising?


edit: Wait, I saw the other thread you started about D* using real people for commercials, so the answer would be NO.

 

I can see where someone who feels that DirecTV is either out to scr3w them at every available opportunity or to squeeze every last dollar out of them (even in 'these economic times where business owes it to the public to not make a profit so as to help out their customers') would feel that it's a direct assult on the whole subscriber base. I would bet that the truth is that a far larger percentage of subscribers are happy with things and/or understand that the cost of pretty much everything is going up than the percentage of subscribers who feel that DirecTV owes it to their customers to give them a break because times are tough.

I certainly don't see my tax bill dropping anytime soon - unless, of course, I find myself out of work entirely.

 

Does anyone sign up for DirectTV because of Christina? I think if they want to promote their company in commericials that is great because the more subs the better
but to pay someone like Christina to promote their product is a waste of good advertising money IMO.

 

They've also paid Beyonce, Ed Begley, Jr. and many other established personalities to advertise. That's the way the advertising business is. They hire those they feel will maximize the results for the money they're spending. I won't even pretend to know enough about business to second guess them on their corporate decisions.

 

christina or beyonce can upgrade me any time they want. no questions asked.

 

Advertising is part of DirecTV's "Subscriber Acquisition Costs" line item in their financial statements. DirecTV fully discloses those costs and why they are important in their annual report.

Advertising and the subscriber acquisition programs should lead to more subscribers which theoretically will allow DirecTV to spread their fixed costs over more people which should relieve price pressure in the future. DirecTV acquiring more customers is a good thing for current customers.

In case you are interested:

So if you divide the 301 million over 18 million subscribers it amounts to roughly 1.40 per month on our bills.

 

Christina Aguilera can grace my TV screen anyday.....in fact, if she wants to come by the house, I'll pay DirecTV double.....

 

it going to be hard to disagree with that statement

 

No, but you will need to sanatize your receivers each time the commercial comes on.