David Bloom:
Hi, I am David Bloom, with Next TMT, here with Vince Torres, the Chief Marketing Officer for DirecTV. I look at DirecTV at the StreamTV show and I go, Vince, why are you guys here?
Vince Torres:
We've invested over $400 million over the last four years to make sure we have a robust streaming platform for our customers. And while satellite has been a great business for us and customers love their satellite service, largely what we sell today and what we provide for customers is streaming solutions. And that is the growth side of our business and that's what we're focused on.
David Bloom:
And that is of course, the fixation of your talking pigeons.
Vince Torres:
That's the fixation of our talking pigeons. That's right. You could stream DirecTV satellite-free.
David Bloom:
And I think that that's what people haven't really understood, this transition for DirecTV. At a time it's been really interesting, as you say, for satellite TV. Well now, what kinds of services are most popular for you guys? What's working for your streaming business?
Vince Torres:
The core of our streaming strategy is to provide more choice and flexibility for our customers. So in December, we launched a free service, provides 110 channels of fast content. We call it a freemium video service, but it's-
David Bloom:
You're hoping they'll step up, but they've got something to start with?
Vince Torres:
So they start with a free service. And then, we also have launched, what we call genre packs. And genre packs are now more bite-size options for customers. So we have a My Entertainment genre pack that meshes together linear channels with their favorite SVODs. We've got a Mi Espanol package, we've got a My News genre pack, we've got a My Sports genre pack. And so these are options that give customers more choice, more flexibility, based on their budget for video.
David Bloom:
What's interesting about that to me is that just like Charter's been doing, you guys seem like you are erasing some of those traditional boundaries between what's a streaming service? What's a SVOD subscription service? What's a traditional cable channel that provides stuff that looks familiar to somebody who's been on cable for 30 years or whatever? You're erasing all of that saying, here's a bunch of stuff from a bunch of people who used to deliver it in a bunch of different ways.
Vince Torres:
That's right.
David Bloom:
So what does that say, I think, about the general business?
Vince Torres:
The key here is to provide customers with the type of content that they want to watch. Where they get it really shouldn't matter as much, right?
David Bloom:
But that's a new understanding, right?
Vince Torres:
It is. It's very different from how we've done it before. Before customers bought these big bundles of linear channels. And now you have all these other apps. The reality is the customer just wants to get to the content that they want.
David Bloom:
I want my shows-
Vince Torres:
When I want it.
David Bloom:
On whatever device, right?
Vince Torres:
On whatever device. And so we've embraced that and so much of where we've invested. I mentioned we've put a lot into our product investment, is in integrating and making it seamless for customers to get, whether it's a linear channel that they want, or whether it's a show that happens to be on whatever app-
David Bloom:
On a broadcast network. How crazy would that be? Who does that?
Vince Torres:
There's great content everywhere, right? We are in the golden age of content and there's so much content out there that most customers don't even know what's out there. So if you can personalize an experience for them, if you can surface content that's relevant to them, independent on what app it may sit at, that integrated experience, that's what we're trying to build. That's what we're trying to market. That's the solution we're providing for our customers. And you now couple that with skinnier options from a content perspective, and that's our future.
David Bloom:
That's key too. So you've got to be able to let them stair step up. Instead of saying, you got to take everything or nothing. Now you can take bits and pieces, put it together, build it how you want to build it, right?
Vince Torres:
You got to put the power in the hands of the consumer. If you try to fight that and try to force something into their needs, you may be successful for a little while, but you're going to fail over the long term.
David Bloom:
Over the long term.
Vince Torres:
And so letting customer take control of what they want to watch and how much they want to pay and when they want to pay for it, but making it an easy experience for them, that's what we're here to do.
David Bloom:
So finally, where do you see the industry going, if any big picture stuff that affects you as a chief marketing officer and the way you all get your pigeons to talk about it?
Vince Torres:
I see change in the industry and you're starting to see it. I think it's a great industry to be in. I guess, I mentioned there's a lot of content. We provide a lot of value for customers. The different players in the value chain need to accept that. And like you mentioned, start working and accepting of what consumers want. Let the consumer dictate how we build solutions for them, and then let's make the arrangements and set up the contracts that allow everybody deliver the consumer's needs, not so focused on what the individual components of the business value chain want to do for their business.
David Bloom:
Great. Well, I'm David Bloom with Next TMT here at the StreamTV show, with Vince Torres, Chief Marketing Officer and head pigeons whisperer at DirecTV. Back to you guys. Thanks, David. All right.