Question-and-Answer Session
Operator
(Operator Instructions) We'll go first to Benjamin Swinburne with Morgan Stanley.
Benjamin Swinburne - Morgan Stanley
Thanks. Good morning to you. First question: is it possible to spend a little more time on BellSouth region and whether or not that was a gross ads or a churn issue in the quarter? Perhaps I am reading too much into this. It looks like you addressed this successfully in 4Q. I'm little surprised that AT&T is being aggressive with Dish bundle, given that they are migrating over to DIRECTV next year. As a corollary to that, any early thoughts on what that means for you in 2009 on a gross ads basis bringing that channel on board?
Chase Carey
Okay. On the BellSouth side, it is both gross and churns. We are affected. I'd say more on the gross side than the churns side . It is improving in the fourth quarter. As I said it's taking us longer. We know we can compete. Obviously we're going into 2009 and this will all change, but we know we can compete effectively. We know we've competed for years, in the AT&T region itself whether there is bundle with Dish what we found here is, that it is taking us longer put in place the right sales initiatives to replace it.
So the second and third quarter, we clearly did not get to where we plan to. We are making headway in the fourth quarter, but even in the fourth quarter we won't be where we were. To some degree, we are not looking forward to the transition in the first quarter where BellSouth comes back in. So, we have to plan the fourth quarter taking that into account. It doesn't make a lot of sense to really gear up a whole bunch of initiatives to mitigate the BellSouth only to find two months later, you've got BellSouth back in as a partner.
In terms of BellSouth being aggressive with Dish, I would expect them to be. They were aggressive with us right up to our benefit up to March 31, when they went to Dish and I think to be in the market you fight with what you've got, and that's sort of what they got to fight with now. I would expect them to use that competitiveness until they switch to us.
In 2009, it will clearly be a positive and I probably wouldn't want to get too far into it. It will be a building process in 2009 and probably dealing with BellSouth we are benefited by having some history with them working there and the rest of the region where we don't. So, there clearly will be a ramp-up as we go through it. Our goal will be to hit the ground running as strong as we can, but there clearly will be a ramp-up to the BellSouth relationship, as we go through 2009.
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