Comcast, Verizon target satellite TV, mobile rivals with $300 Visa for new subscribers

Comcast and Verizon Wireless (NYSE: VZ) are targeting DirecTV (Nasdaq: DTV) and Dish Network (Nasdaq: DISH) customers with a joint promotion that will offer new subscribers a $300 prepaid Visa card if they order a bundle of cable and mobile phone service.

The offer, kicking off this week in Seattle and Portland, Ore., comes just six weeks after Comcast (Nasdaq: CMCSA), Time Warner Cable (NYSE: TWC), and other cable MSOs agreed to sell Advanced Wireless Services (AWS) spectrum to Verizon. Comcast, Time Warner Cable, Bright House Networks and Cox Communications have also reached agreements with Verizon which will allow the cable companies to market mobile phone and data products, and will see Verizon pitch cable programming to its phone customers.

While the Department of Justice said in late December that it was probing the cable-phone agreements--which could result in less competition between Verizon and its cable rivals--the companies aren't letting the DOJ investigation hamper their marketing plans.

Verizon already uses prepaid credit cards to market its FiOS cable, Internet and telephone products, offering new customers who sign a two-year contract $300 pre-paid credit cards that subscribers receive in the mail three months after starting service.

Comcast and Verizon Wireless aren't yet offering promotions to existing cable and mobile phone service. The campaigns in Seattle and Oregon appear to be aimed at consumers that currently subscribe to DirecTV or Dish Network for pay TV programming, and AT&T (NYSE: T) or Sprint (NYSE: S) for mobile phone service.

Comcast and Verizon are offering prepaid Visa cards that range in value from $100 to $300, depending upon the number of Xfinity products such as digital cable and high-speed Internet that a customer orders.

For more:
- The Philadelphia Inquirer has this story
- GeekWire has this story

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