spacetoday.net: Telecom firms strike satellite TV deals

Posted: Tue, Jul 22, 2003, 10:33 AM ET (1433 GMT)
Two major US telephone companies announced deals on Monday that will allow them to sell satellite TV services from DirecTV and EchoStar. Under one agreement, SBC Communications will sell EchoStar satellite television to its customers under the "SBC Dish Network" name. Qwest announced later Monday that it would also sell satellite TV services from both EchoStar and DirecTV. The EchoStar-SBC deal is seen as the bigger of the two, since SBC will consolidate the TV service along with its phone and data services into a single bill for customers. In addition, SBC will invest $500 million into EchoStar, a move some financial analysts see as a first step towards a possible future acquisition of the satellite TV provider.