DirecTV Booming

DirecTV, owned by Hughes Electronics (NYSE: GMH), itself partly owned by General Motors (NYSE: GM), reported some good news last night. Subscriptions are increasing faster than expected, partly due to an enthusiastic reception of its NFL Sunday Ticket package, which means revenues should also end up higher than initially expected for the year.

This is probably generating some smiles over at News Corp. (NYSE: NWS), since News Corp. is buying GM's 20% stake in Hughes for around $6.6 billion.

According to DirecTV chief operating officer Roxanne Austin, the company should end the quarter with roughly 320,000 new subscribers and the year with a little more than 1 million new subscribers. Revenues for the year are expected to come in around $7.6 billion -- which is darn good for an operation that's essentially been up and running for only about a decade.

Meanwhile, while DirecTV is marketing a digital video recorder (DVR) that's co-branded with the popular TiVo (Nasdaq: TIVO), many are wondering whether that might end soon. The reasoning is that since News Corp. owns NDS Group PLC (Nasdaq: NNDS), which has a similar technology, it might lose interest in TiVo once it controls DirecTV.

Cable companies are also likely wringing their hands and perhaps even gnashing their teeth. DirecTV, growing quickly, already sports more than 11 million subscribers, while its closest competitor, the DISH network of EchoStar Communications (NYSE: DISH), has some 9 million. Both membership bases are still small compared to the likes of leader Comcast (Nasdaq: CMCSA), with around 21 million subscribers. But satellite TV services are growing and are taking customers from the cable companies, despite cable's introduction of digital services.

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