DIRECTV 2009 Annual Report Download - page 25

Download and view the complete annual report

Please find page 25 of the 2009 DIRECTV annual report below. You can navigate through the pages in the report by either clicking on the pages listed below, or by using the keyword search tool below to find specific information within the annual report.

Page out of 160

  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5
  • 6
  • 7
  • 8
  • 9
  • 10
  • 11
  • 12
  • 13
  • 14
  • 15
  • 16
  • 17
  • 18
  • 19
  • 20
  • 21
  • 22
  • 23
  • 24
  • 25
  • 26
  • 27
  • 28
  • 29
  • 30
  • 31
  • 32
  • 33
  • 34
  • 35
  • 36
  • 37
  • 38
  • 39
  • 40
  • 41
  • 42
  • 43
  • 44
  • 45
  • 46
  • 47
  • 48
  • 49
  • 50
  • 51
  • 52
  • 53
  • 54
  • 55
  • 56
  • 57
  • 58
  • 59
  • 60
  • 61
  • 62
  • 63
  • 64
  • 65
  • 66
  • 67
  • 68
  • 69
  • 70
  • 71
  • 72
  • 73
  • 74
  • 75
  • 76
  • 77
  • 78
  • 79
  • 80
  • 81
  • 82
  • 83
  • 84
  • 85
  • 86
  • 87
  • 88
  • 89
  • 90
  • 91
  • 92
  • 93
  • 94
  • 95
  • 96
  • 97
  • 98
  • 99
  • 100
  • 101
  • 102
  • 103
  • 104
  • 105
  • 106
  • 107
  • 108
  • 109
  • 110
  • 111
  • 112
  • 113
  • 114
  • 115
  • 116
  • 117
  • 118
  • 119
  • 120
  • 121
  • 122
  • 123
  • 124
  • 125
  • 126
  • 127
  • 128
  • 129
  • 130
  • 131
  • 132
  • 133
  • 134
  • 135
  • 136
  • 137
  • 138
  • 139
  • 140
  • 141
  • 142
  • 143
  • 144
  • 145
  • 146
  • 147
  • 148
  • 149
  • 150
  • 151
  • 152
  • 153
  • 154
  • 155
  • 156
  • 157
  • 158
  • 159
  • 160

DIRECTV
and HD DVRs throughout the territory, which translated into pan-regional penetration rates
which averaged over 25% of gross subscriber additions in the fourth quarter.
•Strong Customer Service. We believe that we have a higher level of customer service than our
competitors which is an important element in minimizing subscriber churn and attracting new
subscribers.
Business Strategy
Our goal is to provide subscribers with the best video experience available. Our strategy focuses on
leveraging DTVLA’s competitive advantages that differentiate our service offerings from those of our
competitors.
•Offer Unique Content. We expect that we can leverage our greater scale to offer unique and
compelling content to subscribers. For example, in most of the territories in which we operate
we will be the only provider of television services where subscribers can see all of the 2010 FIFA
World Cup↩ games, and we are the only operator distributing all of the games in high
definition. In some cases, we have exclusive rights to 2010 FIFA World Cup games. Similarly,
Sky Brazil, PanAmericana and Sky Mexico have licensed exclusive rights through the 2011-2012
season to the Spanish soccer league, which in most countries is the second most popular soccer
league, behind the local country leagues.
•Increase DVR Penetration. A key aspect of our strategy is to use the availability of high quality,
reasonably priced DVRs as a cornerstone to distinguish our service from our competitors’
services. We believe that our technology and pan-regional scale, as well as the relationship with
DIRECTV U.S., can be leveraged to provide DVRs that are more functional and less costly
than those of our competitors. In most countries in which we operate, our competitors either do
not offer DVRs or make them available on terms that have significantly limited their
penetration. As a result of this leadership position, as of the end of 2009, approximately 11% of
our subscribers had DVR service.
•Establish Leadership Position in High-Definition. PanAmericana and Sky Brazil launched HD
services in 2008 and mid-2009, respectively. Other than in Chile and Puerto Rico, our
competitors have limited or no HD offerings and many face significant network capacity
constraints that limit their ability to offer HD services on a significant scale. Although we believe
that the HD content offerings will be more limited in Latin America than in the United States
for the next several years and the uptake of HD services in Latin America will be much slower
than in the United States, we expect that our ability to offer high quality HD services will
provide another opportunity for us to differentiate the quality of our services from those of our
competitors. As of year end 2009, Sky Brazil offered its customers 30 HD channels and
PanAmericana offered on average 8 HD channels.
•Enhance Programming Features. We believe that we can differentiate our service from our
competitors through the use of enhanced features such as interactivity. For example, we first
offered interactive services for soccer matches from the 2006 FIFA World Cup and will provide
similar features for the 2010 FIFA World Cup. We have offered similar interactive services for
the United States Open and Major League Baseball↧.
Infrastructure
We provide services in PanAmericana and Brazil from leased transponders on two satellites. Sky
Mexico provides its services from leased transponders on a separate satellite. Currently, these satellites
13