Audio Video News

Last week, telecommunications provider SBC Communications and DirecTV announced a marketing and distribution agreement that will allow SBC to make digital satellite television service available to its 18 million Southwestern Bell, Nevada Bell, and Pacific Bell residential customers. Specific details of the SBC/DirecTV service will be announced later.

The companies report that the agreement is strategically important—it puts SBC significantly closer to becoming a "one-stop-shopping provider of communications and entertainment services" while enhancing DirecTV's access to SBC's residential customers in California, Nevada, Texas, Oklahoma, Missouri, Arkansas, and Kansas. SBC claims that industry research shows that nearly 60% of consumers want to purchase all communications services from one company, and that this trend is on the rise.

Both companies expect that, beginning this fall, the agreement will allow SBC to sell DirecTV service and the DirecTV System receiving equipment as part of integrated packages of services, as well as on a stand-alone basis in the future, to residential customers living in single-family homes served by SBC's Pacific Bell, Nevada Bell, and Southwestern Bell companies.

Royce Caldwell, president of SBC Operations, says that "a lot of companies are talking about providing their customers with a complete communications and entertainment package, but SBC will soon be the only one actually doing it. Our customers are increasingly busy and want us to help simplify their lives while giving them more control of their communications and entertainment choices. This agreement allows us to meet our customers' needs and tap into what we believe is a growing market opportunity."

DirecTV's Helen Latimer states that "this expanded relationship provides consumers in SBC's territory with a strong alternative to cable. And because we have an existing relationship with SBC, we expect to hit the ground running in this market."