DirecTV pips rival DISH from CenturyLink web

[Jason Whiddon]

* Resale deal began Aug 2
* DISH still supported if users choose to continue (Recasts, adds CenturyLink's comment)
Aug 2 (Reuters) - DirecTV Group (
DTV.O

) has pushed arch-foe Dish Network (
DISH.O


) off rural telephone company CenturyLink's network, a key victory for the top U.S. satellite TV provider fighting to grow its customer base.
Under an exclusive agreement that began Sunday, CenturyLink -- now in the process of buying rival Qwest Communications (
Q.N


) -- will begin reselling DirecTV but continue to support Dish if customers choose to continue with that service.
CenturyLink is paying $10.6 billion for Qwest via a deal announced April that combines the third- and fourth-biggest U.S. telephone operators. The merged company will have customers spanning 37 states and about 17 million access lines.
"While we've enjoyed having DISH as our video partner, we've decided to try a new TV service that will offer our customers new features," said CenturyLink spokeswoman Stephanie Meisse.

UPDATE 1-DirecTV pips rival DISH from CenturyLink web | Reuters

[teachsac]

ouch. plus maybe Frontier coming up?

S~

[Jason Whiddon]

Another article.


CenturyLink Drops Dish For DirecTV - 2010-08-02 20:23:51 | Multichannel News

CenturyLink, the fourth-largest U.S. telco, began marketing DirecTV service to customers in its 33-state footprint on Aug. 1 after an agreement with Dish Network expired at the end of July.
Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. CenturyLink last year acquired Embarq, the former local telephone operations of Sprint. The Monroe, La.-based telco, formerly known as CenturyTel, has about 7 million access lines, 2.3 million broadband customers and 587,000 customers who subscribe to Dish service.
DirecTV already had similar agreements with the three largest telcos -- AT&T, Verizon Communications and Qwest Communications -- which give it coverage of approximately 90 million homes in the U.S. As of February 2009,
AT&T switched from offering Dish service to DirecTV


in areas where U-verse TV is unavailable.
On its website, CenturyLink is offering DirecTV starting at $29.99 per month for one year (with a two-year contract), as well as a triple-play that includes DirecTV starting at $90 per month for the first six months.

[cave1376]

How many telephone co. have dropped Dish and picked up Directv?

[Jason Whiddon]

AT&T, Verizon Communications and Qwest Communications

[jdspencer]

ouch. plus maybe Frontier coming up?

S~

My phone company is Frontier so I'd be interested to see what might happen.

[teachsac]

My phone company is Frontier so I'd be interested to see what might happen.

Mine, too. When I was with E* it wasn 't worth it.

S~