DirecTV Inc. announced a deal that will bring it six new channels aimed at the Filipino market and more than 80,000 subscribers to its direct-to-home satellite television service.

DirecTV joined up with ABS-CBN Broadcasting Corp. and its U.S. subsidiary, ABS-CBN International, an 11-year old company with broadcast television programming to the Filipino-American community through cable operators and its own DTH platform.

The ABS-CBN DTH platform, TFCDirect, offered a specialized bouquet of six channels, including four video (The Filipino Channel, Cinema One, ABS-CBN News Channel and Pinoy Central TV) and two audio channels (DZMM and DWRR) to subscribers. At the time of the announcement, ABS-CBN had more than 80,000 subscribers on its roster. As part of the deal, DirecTV will gain exclusive rights to offer the entire bouquet, but it noted The Filipino Channel will still be available individually through other cable operators.

For DirecTV, the acquisition of the programming and the subscribers fits in with strategy to increase its ethnic programming.

“When News Corp came into DirecTV, there was an initiative to ramp up DirecTV’s international programming efforts and its offerings for ethnic communities in the United States,” Aaron McNally, vice president at DirecTV told Satellite News. “One of the first things we looked at was the Filipino-American, which is a top five market in this country among ethnic populations.”

McNally declined to reveal the total cost of the transaction

Migrating Customers

DirecTV will be migrating current ABS-CBN subscribers to its service through a phased approach. It will be going to each of the subscribers and replacing their current equipment with a DirecTV dish and up to four set-top boxes, free of charge.

However, the conversion to DirecTV will require ABS-CBN subscribers to pay a little more per month than they are paying now. Current ABS-CBN subscribers pay $25.95 per month for service, though there are an undisclosed number of subscribers have been grandfathered at $22.99 per month. McNally said DirecTV would roll back the TFCDirect package price to the $22.99, but he added that subscribers would be required to purchase a DirecTV programming package.

“They are required to take a base package, which will be anything from the basic $9.99 package all the way up to the Total Choice Premiere package,” McNally said. He added DirecTV hopes to have the conversion completed in a year or less.

A Large Market

DirecTV’s interest in ABS-CBN can be tied to what it views as a respectable addressable market.

“By our estimate, there are 700,000 or 800,000 Filipino homes,” McNally noted. Additionally, according to U.S. Census figures, Filipinos represent the second largest Asian group in the United States with a population of more than 2.2 million. Also Filipinos in America have the third highest median household income among Asians at $65,189.

McNally said that DirecTV is seeking other opportunities to boost its ethnic program offerings, but declined to say which markets it is specifically targeting.