Multichannel News.

The explosion of a Dutch satellite may delay DirecTV's plans to expand its HDTV offering this year, at least according to one industry watcher. On Tuesday, a $300 million New Skies-8 satellite exploded on launching. "Though the satellite in question was not the property of DirecTV, the event could cause a material delay to certain components of DirecTV's HDTV strategy," says Craig Moffett, an analyst with Sanford Bernstein.

Still, the impact could be smaller than initial reports suggested, and while delays in expanding the HD locals footprint is clearly a setback, the company believes the impact is likely to be relatively modest.

Rival EchoStar Communications has an agreement to use the same company -- Sea Launch -- to launch a new satellite this year. DirecTV couldn't be reached for comment Thursday, while EchoStar says it is looking at its options.

"We are evaluating a variety of potential scenarios and options at this time," says spokeswoman Kathie Gonzalez. DirecTV, which just rolled out a plan to offer 100 national HDTV channels at the Consumer Electronics Show, is set to fire off a pair of satellites this year that are supposed to bolster HDTV offerings, including DirecTV-10 and DirecTV-11.