Japanese Satcasters In Merger Talks

Japan's two rival commercial satellite broadcasters - Sky PerfecTV and DirecTV - are negotiating a possible merger, the companies said on Monday, February 28, 2000. They were unable to confirm reports, however, that they have already reached a basic agreement that would see Sky PerfecTV absorb the operations of it competitor. ""We are in talks,"" said Asayo Iwaya of Sky PerfectTV's public relations office. ""But we have not yet reached a stage where we can comment on the outcome."" According to the Nihon Keizai newspaper, Japan Digital Broadcasting Services Inc., which runs Sky PerfecTV, has already won approval from Hughes Electronics Corp., the top shareholder of DirecTV, to merge the two operations. It said that Hughes and other DirecTV shareholders will take a 900 million yen (US$8.2 million) stake in Sky PerfecTV at the end of March 2000. This would be 10 percent of new shares that Sky PerfecTV is planning to issue and entitle Hughes to a seat on the board of its former rival. In what would be a capitulation, DirecTV will be disbanded after transferring its subscribers to Sky PerfecTV, the paper said. Source: The Hollywood Reporter