In addition, media responsibilities will shift from Starcom's MediaVest Group to Omnicom's OMD media network. Omnicom's Rapp Collins Worldwide will continue to handle direct marketing activities. DirecTV's executive VP Neil Tiles was quoted in a company release saying, "As the second largest pay television service in the country, our primary challenge is to increase customer acquisition and retention in an increasingly competitive environment."

"With the recent addition of executive creative director Eric Silver, I believe that BBDO has the creative firepower to help us meet this challenge and take us to a new level. By bundling all of our creative, media and direct marketing communication programmes within the Omnicom family, we have also increased our ability to seamlessly integrate our messages."

OMD, a unit of Omnicom, will handle all media buying and planning for Directv. Rapp Collins, also a unit of Omnicom, will continue to develop direct marketing and customer relationship management programs on behalf of Directv. It is expected that the first new efforts from BBDO will debut in a couple of months time backed by an estimated media and production budget of $115 million.

Directv is a unit of Hughes Electronics. Rupert Murdoch's Fox has a 34 per cent stake in the company.