DirecTV growth at risk in AT&T-BellSouth deal
 

DirecTV Group, the biggest U.S. satellite-television provider, is at risk of losing its major source of new subscribers after AT&T draws to a close with the billion acquisition of BellSouth Corp. DirecTV has 15.4 million customers, judging against the 12 million for Douglas County-based EchoStar, provider of the Dish Network satellite TV service.

The company may drop DirecTV as a reseller because it already has a partnership with No. 2 satellite provider EchoStar Communications, said Aryeh Bourkoff, analyst for UBS AG.

The contribution of DirecTV customers from BellSouth doubled to as much as 42% of the first-quarter total, implying on the fact that DirecTV was increasingly depending on this partnership. Of the 255,000 new DirecTV users, as many as 105,000 were added by BellSouth, according to results released by both companies in the past two weeks. The additions suggest El Segundo, Calif.-based DirecTV is too reliant on BellSouth, Bourkoff said. AT&T plans to complete the acquisition of BellSouth this year.

"Telephone companies are delivering satellite subscriber growth, but the organic market is not," Bourkoff said. "It's clear that satellite operational growth is coming at a diminished rate." An EchoStar spokeswoman said the company had no comment on what would become of its partnership with AT&T after the BellSouth acquisition is finalized.

AT&T spokeswoman Anne Vincent said the company will delay decisions about partners until the acquisition of Atlanta- based BellSouth is completed.

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