Sprint this week accused AT&T and DirecTV of deliberately blocking its attempts to advertise on DirecTV.
The U.S. telco called out its rival in an open letter from Sprint CMO Kevin Crull to AT&T CEO Randall Stephenson and DirecTV CEO John Stankey. To drive its point home, Sprint’s letter appeared in newspaper adverts across the country.
"Through our media agency we have made repeated attempts to buy DirecTV controlled advertising inventory. We are surprised and disappointed that we have been flatly rejected," Crull wrote.
The public row is the result of a concerted effort by Sprint to swipe DirecTV customers from under AT&T’s nose.
AT&T completed its acquisition of DirecTV in July, and swiftly launched its ‘All in One’ plan – a converged TV and mobile tariff – in a bid to persuade the 15 million DirecTV customers who are not currently AT&T users to sign up for its mobile service.
AT&T has also offered DirecTV customers $500 worth of incentives to switch to its network.
Sprint has other ideas though.
In late August it offered a year of free voice, SMS and a 2 GB monthly data allowance to DirecTV customers to persuade them to switch to its own mobile service. Less than a week later, it sweetened the deal, offering DirecTV customers the option to pay $10 per month for 4 GB of data, or $20 per month for 6 GB of data.
However, if Crull’s letter this week is anything to go by, AT&T appears to be making it difficult for Sprint to get its message across to DirecTV customers.
"I would have expected that AT&T and DirecTV are committed to a fair and competitive marketplace and the free flow of information. With that in mind, I look forward to your positive response so we can better inform DirecTV customers of this great opportunity," he wrote.
