spacetoday.net: DirecTV writes off satellites

Posted: Tue, Nov 2, 2004, 7:06 PM ET (0006 GMT)
Satellite TV operator DirecTV announced Tuesday that it was writing off most of the value of two satellite originally planned for a broadband Internet service. The company, in its quarterly earnings report, said that a decision to reconfigure the Spaceway 1 and 2 spacecraft to provide direct-to-home television instead of Internet prompted a requirement to test if the assets were "impaired" according to accounting rules. The company said in a statement that the satellites, originally valued at $1.9 billion, exceeded their new fair value by $1.47 billion, and the company took a $903-million after-tax charge to its earnings in the third quarter. The company had previously stated that the two satellites would be used primarily for television, including HD TV; the impairment charge suggests that it is unlikely those satellites will be used much, if at all, for data services.