DirecTV is pushing its pay TV package — without a satellite antenna

Coach Prime wants consumers to know that they can watch DirecTV without a satellite dish.

The company best known for delivering traditional television packages through satellite dishes placed on the sides of homes and on the roofs of buildings is rolling out the next version of its “For the Birds” ad campaign, starring NFL star and college football coach Deion Sanders.

The focus of the ad campaign: DirecTV is also a streaming company.

As pay-TV distributors—both satellite and cable companies—see customers migrate to streaming services, DirecTV is trying to get the message across that it no longer needs bulky satellite antennas for its service.

“We’ve been selling a streaming product for a while, right? It’s not new to us. But a lot of customers don’t know about it,” said Vince Torres, chief marketing officer at DirecTV. “We built this as an alternative. … We know that 80 percent of people don’t like having a dish on the side of their house.”

What’s more, the company’s research found that 75% of consumers still believe DirecTV requires a satellite antenna even though the service has had a streaming option since 2016, Torres said. “That’s a very, very large percentage of prospects.”

The advertising campaign debuted earlier this year and featured pigeons, voiced by actors Henry Winkler and Steve Buscemi, peering through windows as people watch DirecTV, wondering how they’ll be able to watch without a satellite antenna on their roof.

The pigeons lamented the loss of the discs. Winkler’s Frank said he “loved working on those things”, while Buscemi’s Bobby joked that “those discs keep us from getting our beaks wet in the rain”.

While changes in media impacted his taste for this commercial, Buscemi said in an interview that he was determined to perfect the voice and personality of a New York City pigeon.

“For me, it’s more about the creative part of it,” Buscemi said. “I really think these characters are funny.”

Torres said traffic to DirecTV’s website has increased about 50 percent since the ad campaign launched.

Sanders’ inclusion on the list comes just ahead of one of the busiest times of the year for American sports: starting with college football and the NFL, followed by the start of the NBA and NHL, as well as MLB’s postseason.

Sanders, once known as “Prime Time” in the NFL and now known as “Coach Prime,” as coach of the NCAA’s Colorado Buffaloes, wore a cowboy hat and gold chain, essentially playing himself.

“We have a long history TOGETHER – dating back to 2011,” Sanders said in an email interview. “It feels fitting that we’re reuniting again. Coach Prime is back on DirectTV!”

In a 2011 ad campaign, Sanders was the NFL version of Tinker Bell, wearing a DirecTV football jersey under his wings. Sanders was suspended on wires while filming that commercial, so voicing the dove was a different experience, he said.

Satellite TV providers like DirecTV and by EchoStar Dish was once one of the largest distributors of television packages. Competition increased when cable companies began offering broadband.

For a while, the solution for satellite companies was to focus on customers in rural areas where cable broadband service was limited, said Craig Moffett, an analyst at MoffettNathanson.

But the competition between cable and satellite for pay TV subscribers has evaporated since streaming services caused many people to cancel their subscriptions.

“All of this is in the context of cord cutting and media companies taking more and more of their best content, including sports, and putting it on streaming platforms, so what’s left of the TV package is no longer an attractive sell,” Moffett said.

The first quarter of this year was the worst ever for traditional pay-TV subscribers, with estimated total losses exceeding 2.37 million for the first time, according to MoffettNathanson.

Although DirecTV’s finances are now private — the result of private equity firm TPG collect 30% stake in DirecTV from AT&T in 2021 — the company has about 11 million satellite and streaming customers, according to people familiar with the matter. MoffettNathanson estimates DirecTV added more than 20,000 streaming customers earlier this year.

Most of those customers still have satellite dishes. For DirecTV’s streaming options, consumers can use their own devices, like Roku. But the company also offers its own hardware, called the Gemini box.

DirecTV offers two streaming options — DirecTV Stream, a no-contract internet TV package, and DirecTV over the internet, which requires a signed contract and is only available through the Gemini device.

Based on Antenna’s data, DirecTV Stream has the smallest monthly compounded percentage increase when compared to Hulu + Live TV, Philo, Sling TV, and YouTube TV — despite typically being among the services with the lowest monthly subscriber loss rates.

“The challenge for consumers today is that it’s increasingly difficult to find the content they want to watch,” Torres said of the fragmentation of content between different TV and streaming services. “It’s the entertainment industry’s version of road rage.”

The device allows viewers to switch between streaming apps like Netflix and DirecTV guide without changing remotes or inputs or leaving the app.

Other pay TV providers also offer similar options, such as Comcast‘s X1 set-top box, as well as the Xumo streaming device, a joint venture between Charter Communications and Comcast.

Through the 2023 NFL season, DirecTV has been the sole provider of the “Sunday Ticket” package since its inception in 1994. GoogleYouTube TV, a competitor to DirecTV’s streaming options, is now Owner of the rights to “Sunday Ticket”.

But DirecTV still offers “Sunday Ticket” to bars, restaurants and other businesses, many of which rely on out-of-market NFL all-game subscriptions to attract large audiences.

However, streaming has also changed live sports, the highest-rated television programming. Amazon’s Prime Video and Netflix have exclude NFL games, while legacy media companies have snapped up exclusive game rights for their growing streaming services.

On the consumer side, DirecTV is still pushing the idea that it has the most complete live sports package offered by a pay-TV and streaming provider. Its streaming service includes all nationally broadcast games and regional sports networks—a rarity for internet TV packages.

Torres said this is where Coach Prime comes in handy before the football season.

“He’s very recognizable, fun to work with, and effective at delivering the message,” Torres said. “When you think about the challenge that we’re facing, how do we continue to build the brand message that we’re trying to educate the American people about, who better to bring on the team than Coach Prime?”

Disclosure: Comcast owns NBCUniversal, the parent company of CNBC.