DirecTV Group, the largest U.S. satellite-television provider, is at risk of losing its biggest source of new subscribers after AT&T completes a $67 billion acquisition of BellSouth Corp.
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.
DirecTV has 15.4 million customers, compared with about 12 million for Douglas County-based EchoStar, provider of the Dish Network satellite TV service.
The contribution of DirecTV customers from BellSouth doubled to as much as 42 percent of the first-quarter total, signaling DirecTV’s increasing dependence on the partnership. Of 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.
Denver Post staff writer Kimberly S. Johnson contributed to this report.
