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BY STACI D. KRAMER
With spring training underway and opening day just around the corner, DirecTV is launching a new marketing campaign this week aimed at reminding New York Yankees fans at Cablevision addresses that DBS is still their only option for the Yankees Entertainment & Sports Network.
The DBS provider will be using direct mail, print ads in area papers and radio spots on WFAN and WCBS to drive home the message. The centerpiece of the campaign, scheduled to run from March 10 through April 30, is a two-room setup with free installation for its $39.99 Total Choice package. Customers have to sign up for 12 months of the 130-plus channel package.
A DirecTV spokesman says the company experienced a 186% spike in new subscribers in the Cablevision footprint last year, when a one-room package was offered.
At the start of its second baseball season in business, YES has yet to make its way onto Cablevision's systems, cutting the network off from roughly half of its New York audience. Neither is willing to budge from its initial position ? YES, that it should be on expanded basic at a cost of about $2 per subscriber, or Cablevision, that YES should be a premium channel ? for there to be any real hope that the situation will change in time for this season.
While a number of Yankees games are carried on ESPN and other channels available to Cablevision subscribers, YES is the only venue for more than 130 games.
EchoStar and DirecTV carry the network. For its part, Cablevision lost 45,000 subscribers in 2002. About 30,000 subscribers defected to satellite because of its refusal to carry YES, the company said.
But analysts wonder how much DirecTV has to gain from an expensive campaign this time around, given that most of the fans willing to switch probably did so last year.
?I'm not so sure that the marginal customers they're going to get are going to justify the expense,? says Robert Routh, an analyst for Natexis Bleichroeder Inc.
Says Kagan analyst John Mansell, ?Remember, too, Cablevision offers high-speed access, metro channels, VOD and other services not available on DirecTV.?
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