Emma Brackett Named Vice President of Content and Programming

EL SEGUNDO, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- DIRECTV, one of the world's leading providers of digital television entertainment, announced today Robert Thun has joined DIRECTV as senior vice president of Content and Programming. Reporting to Thun will be Emma Brackett, vice president of Content and Programming.

Robert Thun, Senior Vice President of Content and Programming, DIRECTV (Photo: Business Wire)

"With programming costs continuing to rise at unjustifiable rates it is critical that we continue to strengthen our Content team with experienced and skilled executives like Rob and Emma to secure the best content, rights and value for our customers in every deal we do," said Daniel York, executive vice president and chief content officer for DIRECTV. "Their diverse experience and knowledge of both the content and distribution sides of the business makes them invaluable additions to our Content organization."

Thun, who reports to York, will be responsible for managing key content categories and relationships with many of the industry's largest network groups, as well as overseeing DIRECTV's retransmission consent, sports, Spanish-language, international, and home shopping programming, in an effort to negotiate the best possible deals to secure content for DIRECTV customers across all platforms.

Thun comes to the content operations team from Univision where he served as executive vice president of Business Operations. There, he was responsible for leading the company's deal team in developing and executing the distribution strategies for Univision's broadcast and cable television network portfolio. In addition, Thun managed the field sales, business affairs and financial services teams within UCI's Distribution Sales & Marketing department.

Prior to joining Univision Thun spent seven years at AT&T. While there he was a key contributor to the launch of AT&T of U-Verse, successfully negotiating deals with many of the industry's top content providers. Prior to AT&T, Thun worked at Fox Cable Networks for over seven years serving as vice president of National Accounts, Sales Strategy and Business Development.

As vice president of Content and Programming, Brackett focuses on Spanish-language, international and the home shopping areas of the business. She will work with Thun and his team to enable our partners to identify, acquire, produce, program and manage the cost of content so DIRECTV can deliver the world's best video experience to its customers.

"DIRECTV's programming team has a very strong reputation for working hard for its customers to provide them with the best content at the fairest rates," said Thun. "I look forward to the challenges this new opportunity brings and excited to be a part of the talented DIRECTV Content and Programming team."

"DIRECTV has an excellent lineup of International and Hispanic programming that offers some of the best content from around the world," said Brackett. "This is a tremendous opportunity to bring even more high-quality content to our customers who rely on DIRECTV to stay connected to their homeland."

Brackett joins DIRECTV from Globecast Americas where she served as vice president of Consumer Video. In that role Brackett successfully launched the MyGlobeTV OTT (over-the-top content) platform with dozens of international channels. Brackett also spent six years at AT&T U-Verse, most recently as director of Content, developing AT&T's International and Hispanic content strategy and acquisitions.

Thun holds a bachelor's degree in business administration from the University of Georgia, a master's degree of accounting from the University of Southern California and an MBA from the University of California Los Angeles. Brackett received her bachelor's degree from Antioch College and earned her law degree from Southwestern Law School in Los Angeles, California.

About DIRECTV:

DIRECTV (NASDAQ: DTV) is one of the world's leading providers of digital television entertainment services delivering a premium video experience through state-of-the-art technology, unmatched programming and industry leading customer service to more than 36 million customers in the U.S. and Latin America. In the U.S., DIRECTV offers its over 20 million customers access to more than 190 HD channels and Dolby-Digital® 5.1 theater-quality sound, access to exclusive sports programming such as NFL SUNDAY TICKET™, Emmy-award winning technology and higher customer satisfaction than the leading cable companies for 13 years running. DIRECTV Latin America, through its subsidiaries and affiliated companies in Brazil, Mexico, Argentina, Venezuela, Colombia, another Latin American countries, leads the pay TV category in technology, programming and service, delivering an unrivaled digital television experience to more than 16 million customers. DIRECTV sports and entertainment properties include two Regional Sports Networks (Rocky Mountain and Pittsburgh), and minority ownership interests in Root Sports Northwest and Game Show Network. For the most up-to-date information on DIRECTV, please visit www.directv.com.

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DIRECTV
Darris Gringeri, 212-205-0882

Source: DIRECTV

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