DirecTV Hires TW Exec for Broadband

DirecTV Inc. said it hired former Time Warner Cable executive Evan Grayer to help the direct-broadcast satellite firm come up with a new broadband Internet strategy.

Grayer -- who worked previously in business-development roles at both Time Warner Cable and America Online Inc. -- was named vice president, broadband at DirecTV.

“Evan brings to DirecTV a vast array of experience in multichannel-television, high-speed-Internet and wireless services,” DirecTV Group Inc. CEO Chase Carey said in a prepared statement. “His in-depth knowledge of the broadband market will undoubtedly serve DirecTV well as we address the role broadband will play in our business going forward.”

DirecTV Group’s Hughes Network Systems Inc. subsidiary operates a satellite-delivered high-speed Internet service branded DIRECWAY, but it has attracted only 220,000 residential and small-business subscribers.

DirecTV has also teamed up with telcos such as BellSouth Corp. to offer consumers bundled DBS and digital-subscriber-line Internet packages.