Which Is The Better Bet - Dish Network vs. DirecTV?

The satellite television industry is one that has been booming over the last several years and two of the major players – DirecTV DTV and Dish Network DISH – are virtually neck-and-neck in the race toward becoming the worldwide leader. But which is the better stock pick?

There has been much speculation about that since satellite TV began sending cable television riding off into the sunset a few years ago. But investors have wondered which of these companies is going to pull ahead of the other in a significant enough way to be able to cause it to become the undisputed king of satellite. So we pose the question [which would you rather…DirecTV or Dish Network?”

For the better part of the last year both DirecTV and Dish Network have been wooing the video-on-demand giant Hulu in an effort to expand its market position. The prospective merger would be so influential that it is expected that it would put the winner ahead of the runner-up for the foreseeable future. As it stands right now, neither is in many discussions with Hulu, although DirecTV had talks up until this past summer. If a deal were to go through, it will certainly be a major step in the right direction for DirecTV. But will it make the company a better stock investment?

The television industry is in limbo to a large degree and a potential Hulu deal does not necessarily mean that such an advantage will make any difference in the weeks and months ahead. Latin America is growing into such a huge economic region that if the currencies therein ever establish stability, it will rival Europe as an global financial juggernaut.

Related: AT&T vs. Verizon: Which Is The Better Investment?

DirectTV saw 16 percent growth in its Latin American market during the first quarter of 2013, which has led to the region taking up 23 percent of the company’s overall revenue. Exchange rates notwithstanding, DirecTV also saw a 1.5 percent increase in its monthly per-subscriber revenue. This translated to a 17 percent increase in operating profit to $546 million, which makes DirecTV the largest pay-television provider in the Latin American region.

Dish Network, on the other hand, is getting good grades for effort, but isn’t really cutting the mustard in terms of its overall performance. For one thing, it’s subscriber numbers are significantly less than those of DirecTV – nearly 6 million less. Dish’s pre-subscriber revenue is nearly $18.00 less than that of DirecTV and Dish has virtually no international presence.

The company bought Blockbuster in 2011, but that merger has actually ended up doing more harm than good. All Blockbuster storefronts are expected be closed any day, though there were plans (some would say they were of the desperate variety) to use the stores that are still operational as a foundation for Dish’s planned wireless empire. Dish also has plans to purchase Clearwire in order to give the company some leverage in the telecommunications market. Whether that will actually work remains to be seen, but for now it seems that DirecTV has the clear edge over Dish Network.

But who is the better long term investment is still anyone’s guess.