DirecTV: Delays in Strategy Possible from Rocket Explosion

DirecTV’s (DTV) HDTV strategy may have suffered collateral damage from the explosion yesterday of an unrelated rocket launch. Last night, a satellite from a company called SES New Skies that was trying to put a Boeing satellite into orbit using a company called Sea Launch, an international consortium that uses sea-based launch platforms, blew up on launch.

The satellite and rocket were destroyed. That particular satellite is of no direct relevance to DirecTV - but as Craig Moffett of Bernstein Research points out in a note yesterday, it could result in delays for a satellite launch the company has scheduled with Sea Launch later this year.

Moffett notes that DirecTV has two launches on the calendar for 2007 - DirecTV 10 and DirecTV 11. One will be ground launched, in June. The other was set for an ocean launch later in the year. That one, he says “will be delayed.” Moffett says that according to DirecTV, a delay “would limit the rate at which DirecTV can expand availability of local HD channels.” He says the company is looking at alternative launch options, but that it is unclear if it can secure one.

Moffett says any delay would be “an incremental negative for the company,” though he says the impact should be “relatively modest.”

DirecTV today is down 2 cents at $24.31.

Yesterday: Satellite TV Stocks: Now It's About the Fundamentals