Liberty Media CEO Greg Maffei offered these thoughts about DirecTV’s triple play future at the UBS Securities Media & Entertainment conference on Monday, as reported by Multichannel News. Liberty is taking a controlling stake in DirecTV. DirecTV has staked its interim future on HD and specialty programming like their venerable NFL Sunday Ticket. But really, what else is Maffei going to say? DirecTV is triple play challenged, with no easy solution in site.
Maffei and DirecTV have to put their eggs in the enhanced video value proposition basket. Perhaps history will show this strategy correct. Maybe enough consumers will decide to get services from multiple players, passing on the triple play. Cable’s triple play growth rates seem to be slowing (just ask Comcast), so maybe triple play’s best growth days are behind us. Or maybe the growth rates are simply shifting, with Verizon and AT&T’s best triple play growth rates ahead of them. Regardless, DirecTV seems focused on building competitive advantage around enhanced video features, and apparently are intending to ride that horse into the foreseeable future.
