DirecTV Starts DirecTV Advertising, Leifer To Head Up New Division
- by Wayne Friedman , April 1, 2022
Looking to find its own way, DirecTV -- now removed from
AT&T and its connected WarnerMedia advertising efforts -- is starting its own advertising sales team headed by DirecTV ad veteran Amy Leifer, who will be its chief advertising sales officer.
The unit is called DirecTV Advertising. Previously, advertising sales for DirecTV were sold by WarnerMedia advertising sales, and before that, were sold by AT&T’s Xandr, its advanced advertising unit.
In February 2021, AT&T sold a minority interest in DirecTV for $16 billion to private equity firm TPG -- with AT&T owning 70% and TPG with 30%, with DirecTV operating as a stand-alone company.
Leifer previously was executive vice president, planning and operations, WarnerMedia.
She joined DirecTV as vice president of national sales in 2011.
In August 2021, DirecTV started up DirecTV Stream, an internet-delivered pay TV service, in an effort to compete with other virtual pay TV distributors, as well as new streaming services.
Satellite pay TV provider DirecTV has seen massive losses in subscribers in recent years. In 2020, it lost 3 million subscribers.
advertisement
advertisement
In the fourth quarter of 2021, DirectTV lost 400,000 subscribers, according to Leichtman Research Group. It ended 2021 with 14.6 million subscribers.
AT&T is now in the process of spinning off WarnerMedia in a $43 billion deal with Discovery Inc.
