DirecTV Japan Inc. has agreed to disband and hand over all its satellite television subscribers to the operator of rival SKYPerfecTV services.

The accord will leave SKYPerfecTV, operated by Japan Digital Broadcasting Services Inc., as the sole company offering satellite TV broadcasting services via a communications satellite.

DirecTV will liquidate the company, according to officials of the two firms.

Under the deal, Hughes Electronics Corp. of the United States, DirecTV's effective top shareholder, will invest in DirecTV through a purchase of new shares to be floated by SKYPerfecTV, they said.

DirecTV will help its clients start subscribing to SKYPerfecTV gradually over the next year.

The two have been competing for subscribers for over 3 years. DirecTV had 400,000 subscribers as of January, while SKYPerfecTV had 1.66 million.

DirecTV, seeking to win over more subscribers, has been following the costly strategy of partially reimbursing to each subscriber the cost of purchasing an antenna and receiver needed to acquire the service.

But the strategy has backfired, causing the company to rack up even bigger losses, DirecTV said.

As a result, DirecTV's management has found it inappropriate to continue offering satellite television broadcasting services in Japan.

CS digital broadcasting began in Japan in 1996, offered first by PerfecTV Corp., which later merged with Japan Sky Broadcasting Co. (JSkyB) in 1998 to create what is now Japan Digital Broadcasting Services.

SKYPerfecTV and DirecTV apparently thought it better to consolidate their operations to prepare for expected competition from the start later this year of full digital broadcasting services by companies using broadcasting satellites, industry sources said.

Japan Digital Broadcasting is owned chiefly by Sony Corp., Softbank Corp. and News Corp. of Australia, while DirecTV is controlled 43.3 percent by Hughes and the remainder by Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. and other firms.