Hughes to Devote More Satellites to Television

NEW YORK, Nov 4 (Reuters) - Hughes Electronics Corp., (NYSE:GMH),
owner of satellite broadcaster DirecTV, said it plans to reconfigure
new satellites that had been intended for high-speed data transmission
to provide additional bandwidth for advanced television services.

The shift in strategy, on the eve of the planned takeover of Hughes by
News Corp. Ltd. (AUS:NCP) at the end of the year, shows that DirecTV
is focusing on offering next-generation television services like
providing local television channels in high-definition format rather
than on consumer Internet access.

The satellites to be reconfigured are part of Hughes' $1.5 billion
Spaceway project and were intended to provide broadband data services
for businesses and consumers.

But in comments made to the SkyForum satellite industry conference
last week, and first reported in the Wall Street Journal, DirecTV
chairman and CEO Eddy Hartenstein said Hughes is looking at ways to
use part of the Spaceway satellites' capacity "to fill a big need for
DirecTV."

A DirecTV spokesman declined to elaborate but said that the potential
use of Spaceway capacity for DirecTV broadcasts was disclosed in an
SEC filing at the beginning of the year.

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