Media

DirecTV And Echostar: The Crystal Ball Approach

The folks over at Cowen & Company have a novel theory about the future of satellite TV. The research operations has a "neutral" on Echostar (DISH) and DirecTV (DTV) with price targets at about the point where they trade now.

But, the backbone of the analysis assumes that Wall St. can know how the video market will look in 2010. Cowen claims that AT&T (T) and Verizon (VZ) will do so well at marketing video to consumers that "We expect telecommunications companies to gain up to 20 percent share in the 38 million homes served by 2010,"  according to an interview with The Associated Press.

There is nothing wrong with making predictions about things that will happen three years in the future, but it is probably a horrible way to make investment decisions. The Cowen theory does not say much about what will happen with cable or why it thinks that satellite TV and cable will lose so much share. Maybe the big telephone companies will give their service away.

Nice reading, bad advice.

Douglas A. McIntyre can be reached at [email protected]. He does not own securities in companies that he writes about.

Take This Retirement Quiz To Get Matched With An Advisor Now (Sponsored)

Are you ready for retirement? Planning for retirement can be overwhelming, that’s why it could be a good idea to speak to a fiduciary financial advisor about your goals today.

Start by taking this retirement quiz right here from SmartAsset that will match you with up to 3 financial advisors that serve your area and beyond in 5 minutes. Smart Asset is now matching over 50,000 people a month.

Click here now to get started.

Thank you for reading! Have some feedback for us?
Contact the 24/7 Wall St. editorial team.