DirecTV Creates In-House Advertising Sales Team

EL SEGUNDO, Calif., Nov. 8, 2006/Satnews Daily/ ― DirecTV, Inc. is streamlining its advertising sales division by bringing the entire operation in-house. As part of this new transition, DirecTV said it will combine its existing Advertising Sales team with a group of DirecTV account representatives from DirecTV’s former ad sales vendor, Twentieth Television.

The newly combined DirecTV Advertising Sales team, operating out of DirecTV offices in Los Angeles, New York and Chicago, will be responsible for attracting new national advertisers to DIRECTV while also working with internal DirecTV departments to create new partnerships and revenue sources.

“Fully in-sourcing our Ad Sales team enables DirecTV to implement an aggressive new advertising sales strategy with more control and better efficiency,” said Eric Shanks, executive vice president, DirecTV Entertainment. “Twentieth Television, combined with our existing internal ad sales team, executed extraordinary year-over-year revenue growth through traditional media and DirecTV’s advanced interactive services platform.”

Leading the group and responsible for annual gross ad sales revenues while serving at Twentieth Television, Bob Riordan, senior vice president of Advertising Sales, will be based in New York City and will report to Shanks.

Riordan’s responsibilities include all aspects of advertising sales, including traditional media sales, advanced services applications, sports (NFL SUNDAY TICKET™, etc.), pricing, planning and research (including the relationship with Nielsen Media Research). As the DirecTV account lead at Twentieth Television, Riordan will now manage the entire Ad Sales team.

Alison Pascola, vice president of Ad Sales, will report to Riordan and focus on ad sales marketing and research – shifting from her current role at DirecTV while continuing as the internal point of contact for employees in Los Angeles. Pascola and her team will also be responsible for developing and presenting ad sales promotional opportunities directly to clients and their advertising agencies.

Joining DirecTV from Twentieth Television and also reporting to Riordan are: Rich Forester, vice president, New Business Development, based in New York; Jamie Calandruccio, vice president, Planning and Operations, based in New York; Steve Fish, vice president, Mid-West Region, based in Chicago; and JC Kawalec, vice president, Western Region, based in Los Angeles.

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