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From satleo:

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[DKSat]

AT&T, DIRECTV and DISH: The Skinny

DIRECTV scored a coup late Friday … the DBS company announced that AT&T will market and sell the satellite TV service as a co-branded offering after Jan. 31, 2009.

The relationship between the companies will take effect after the expiration of AT&T's current agreement with DISH Network, AT&T confirmed in a statement. Earlier this year, DISH disclosed that AT&T would terminate the exclusive sales and marketing agreement between the companies. The No. 2 DBS company reported last week that the deal had been extended by a month, to Jan. 31.

DISH didn't have much to say about the DIRECTV/AT&T deal. In a statement, DISH said it has "enjoyed a good partnership with AT&T over the past several years. We look forward to a healthy competition with their U-verse product and DIRECTV."

And while U-verse TV from AT&T is a video competitor to DIRECTV, AT&T said the satellite TV product will become an integral part of the AT&T Advanced TV video portfolio, alongside the telco's IPTV offering.

Nonetheless, AT&T is quite a catch for DIRECTV, given that the DBS giant has relationships with the other big telcos, Verizon and Qwest

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[DKSat]

Street Eyes AT&T/DIRECTV Deal

Wall Street reacted to news that AT&T is going with DIRECTV as its DBS partner, leaving DISH Network out of the telco's sales and marketing mix after Jan. 31, 2009.

AT&T announced late Friday its plan to switch from DISH to DIRECTV for its exclusive satellite TV sales and marketing efforts. The news had financial analysts scrambling to revise subscriber forecasts for the two DBS companies.

Tom Eagan of Collins Stewart raised his 2009 subscriber net adds estimate for DIRECTV from 748,000 to 915,000. As for the other small dish platform, the analyst said he expects DISH will add just 12,000 net adds next year, down from a previous estimate of 218,000 net adds.

Eagan said the AT&T/DIRECTV agreement "puts DIRECTV in the enviable position of being the satellite TV player AT&T may consider acquiring should its U-Verse TV service does not meet expectations next year."

Craig Moffett of Bernstein Research called the AT&T/DIRECTV announcement "a clear negative for DISH Network." The analyst said he expects DISH to post a sizable subscriber loss (up to 400,000 customers) for full year 2009. Moffett had previously expected flat net growth for the No. 2 small dish service.

Moffett said he expects DIRECTV to gain 800,000 customers next year, a doubling of previous expectations.

Bernstein lowered its price target for DISH shares to $23 and jumped its price target for DIRECTV shares to $36.

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