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To: BillyG who wrote (37898)	12/21/1998 10:15:00 AM
From: JEFF K	Respond to of 50808

DirecTV Japan, SkyPerfecTV May Be Forced to Merge Tokyo, Dec. 21 (Bloomberg) -- DirecTV Japan and SkyPerfecTV, rival digital satellite television broadcasters, may be forced to merge unless the market for satellite TV in Japan grows more quickly, according to the head of DirecTV Japan. Larry Hunter, chairman of DirecTV Japan Management Inc., said the market may not be able to support two satellite TV broadcasters ''in the foreseeable future.'' ''It depends how many subscribers there are,'' he said. DirecTV Japan has about 200,000 subscribers and SkyPerfecTV about 900,000 subscribers. Analysts said the broadcasters need about 2 million subscribers to be profitable. ''There is no well developed multi-channel pay TV service (in Japan) and we have to educate consumers why they should buy pay-TV,'' Hunter said. ''Once we overcome that hurdle, the market will explode.'' Until then, both companies may face problems growing because they don't provide enough content for Japanese audiences, said Simone Cunliffe, an analyst at Jardine Fleming Securities. ''I don't think DirecTV and SkyPerfecTV can survive in their own right for more than a year without one player merging or dropping out,'' Cunliffe said. Growth in subscriptions has slowed because much of the programming is imported and many Japanese consumers aren't willing to pay to watch those shows, analysts said. DirecTV Japan, the one-year-old unit of Hughes Electronics Corp.'s satellite broadcaster DirecTV, is backed by Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. and Mitsubishi Corp. SkyPerfecTV was the result of a May merger between broadcasters Japan Sky Broadcasting Co. (JSkyB) and PerfecTV. SkyPerfecTV is backed by trading companies Itochu Corp., Mitsui & Co., Nissho Iwai Corp. and Sumitomo Corp. as well as by Rupert Murdoch's News Corp., Sony Corp. and software company Softbank Corp. Hunter said he was disappointed Sony and Murdoch's Fox network refuse to sell content to DirecTV in Japan. In the U.S., content must be made available on equal terms to broadcasters by law, he said. Bloomberg L.P., the parent of Bloomberg News, provides programming to PerfecTV and DirecTV in Japan. 03:08:57 12/21/1998 Any redistribution of Bloomberg content, including by framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Bloomberg L.P. Any reference to the material must be properly attributed to Bloomberg News. The information herein was obtained from sources which Bloomberg L.P. and its suppliers believe reliable, but they do not guarantee its accuracy. Neither the information, nor any opinion expressed, constitutes a solicitation of the purchase or sale of any securities or commodities.(C) Copyright 1998 Bloomberg L.P. BLOOMBERG, Bloomberg News, Bloomberg Financial Markets, Bloomberg Television, Bloomberg News Radio are trademarks, tradenames and service marks of Bloomberg L.P.