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DirecTV to Lay off 10% of Managerial Staff
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It is sad they will be laying off, leaving those to find other jobs. I hope the economy does pickup sometime in 2023.
Federal Reserve announces 0.5% rate hike, signals more increases to come (nbcnews.com)
Federal Reserve announces 0.5% rate hike, signals more increases to come (nbcnews.com)
Economy is doing fine. Unemployment is still at record lows and GDP is currently estimated to be 4% for the last qtr Directv laying off 500 managers isnt surprising at all even in perfect economic conditions considering the amount of customer they have lost over the last several years
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Unemployment is at 3.5%. Full employment is when unemployment hits 3%. Economy is good, its the prices that got out of whack.
Although I feel bad for the managerial staff, its not economy related.
Its lack of Directv investment in the business. Granted pay TV is going through considerable change but the Directv technology is too old. Stream and SAT should have been combined years ago. They didn't evolve with the times.
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Stream and SAT have always been under the same corporate umbrellas. I'm not sure what you mean by "combined".
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[Like you can have a box in the living room for Satellite, then in other rooms, have stream with a Roku, that way you can avoid box fees.
Comcast and Charter have this option, you can have 1 box or even 0 boxes, they both have apps that basically turns a Roku into a cable box at no charge.
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I believe AT&T intended to combine the services earlier but were hit with roadblocks from the content providers. I believe they thought it would have been much easier to expand the contacts DIRECTV had for satellite to cover OTT streaming delivery. By the time they actually launched the "full service" AT&T TV their decline was locked in.
I would like to see a completely combined service. Charge one price for satellite or stream and let satellite customers use the full DIRECTV Stream service. The only difference would be modest (not excessive) equipment fees for the customers who still wanted or needed a satellite receiver. That could be offset by a commitment to keep the service year round. Turn in your satellite equipment and save the equipment fees - without needing to cancel one account to start another (or having two accounts).
That may have been what AT&T was hoping for when they bought DIRECTV. Leverage the combined subscriber base to write their own ticket with the content providers. It didn't work out that way.
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DIRECTV satellite lives and dies on TV fees. They've stood by that business model for quite a long time. Even their new satellite streaming option, the Gemini, reportedly demands a TV fee.
You may have noticed that Comcast and Cox charge different fees like broadcast channel fees, franchise fees and regulatory fees that DIRECTV doesn't charge. It isn't an apples to apples comparison.
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It does make it easier when someone calls customer service and wants to talk to a manager. 
I am surprised that DIRECTV only has 10,000 employees. Hundreds less after the lay off. They must do a lot of contracting for work instead of direct hire. Mastec installers and no DIRECTV installers? They hire customer service representatives but that has turned into a work from home opportunity now.
I am surprised that DIRECTV only has 10,000 employees. Hundreds less after the lay off. They must do a lot of contracting for work instead of direct hire. Mastec installers and no DIRECTV installers? They hire customer service representatives but that has turned into a work from home opportunity now.
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Better articleIt does make it easier when someone calls customer service and wants to talk to a manager.
I am surprised that DIRECTV only has 10,000 employees. Hundreds less after the lay off. They must do a lot of contracting for work instead of direct hire. Mastec installers and no DIRECTV installers? They hire customer service representatives but that has turned into a work from home opportunity now.
DirecTV to shed more than 200 managers amid pay-TV struggles, streaming competition
The satellite TV giant, which was spun off from AT&T in 2021, is looking to downsize its management ranks as consumers pivot to streaming services and lower-cost programming packages.
www.latimes.com
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Combined into the same STB. I personally suggested streaming back up with rain fade, about 7 years ago to two EVP's at Directv in person. Before HS17 was ever launched. And when Directv spun off from AT&T and Streaming started they could have been combined then. But zero investment in consumer services. Still using HR44/54 and a poorly designed HS17.
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Thinking only of the local DVR .vs. cloud DVR implications, this probably wouldn't be practical. Satellite tuners (and the accompanying smart card technology) aren't cheap so outfitting streaming boxes with tuners that will never be used is a non-starter. Cable companies tinkered with this model in an attempt to transition to cloud DVR and it doesn't seem to have taken the industry by storm.
The phrase "cold, dead hands" is often used when contemplating a mandated client-server model and while that may be unfortunate (or even unwarranted), it represents a clear preference for what the old-school architecture brings.
I know when I call or Chat or do Twitter I get people where English isn't their 1st language. Those people work in an office but the ones in the U.S. work from home. It doesn't matter because the people who can fix certain issues don't talk to customers.It does make it easier when someone calls customer service and wants to talk to a manager.
I am surprised that DIRECTV only has 10,000 employees. Hundreds less after the lay off. They must do a lot of contracting for work instead of direct hire. Mastec installers and no DIRECTV installers? They hire customer service representatives but that has turned into a work from home opportunity now.
November 2021 they took the code off my account for free HBO channels (promo through wireless). I spent hours on the phone to fix it but was told my account is an older account with a grandfathered plan or something so back office would need to fix it. I have been with Directv for 12 years so I guess with the AT&T takeover then split no one knows what to do. Every month I have to call to get it credited, notes on account, but still an issue. For that headache alone I am going to switch.
Does anybody remember that company from Rochester NY called Kodak? Directv is the Kodak of paytv (snark..). You could say Blackberry was the same model.... resistant to change and the writing has been on the wall for DirecTV for a while. I would expect more layoffs sooner than later out in California... the model isn't working.
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Kodak still exists. They have shifted the primary focus of their business to commercial customers. DIRECTV is shifting their focus to streaming. They may survive, although there is a lot more competition in the consumer streaming marketplace than commercial photography.
Kodak is doing batteries and home printers too...a shadow of its former self (... off topic but they had the patents to the digital photography but opted out because they were afraid of cannibalizing their film business). DirecTV streaming as you said has a lot of competition... Hulu has their service with local channels at $70 a month. If you need Sports or your sports teams there are ways to stream that as a separate entity as well at much lower cost. There will still be loyalists with DirecTV but their price strategy will not do well at this current price point.
Kodak is doing fine. They are in a lot of different things. I worked in the printing industry before retireing a little over a year ago and we had their print production software which is Kodak Prinergy. It is the top dog in the printer workflow solution software and like DIRECTV...it has the price to prove it. For example the software was just under $500,000 and just the support plan for our shop was $24,000 per year. I'm sure that has not went down since I retired.
... at 3.56 cents a share I hope it improves...my neighbor was a retiree. As I said I don't doubt that DirecTV will have its loyalists but the price point with younger people won't fly. And ask anyone under 30 years old if they've heard of Kodak (outside of Rochester). They have a lot of reworking to do.
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