DirecTV Inc. and EchoStar Communications Corp. will no longer officially cooperate on lobbying satellite issues in Washington, D.C., after the board of directors at the Satellite Broadcasting & Communications Association voted Thursday to disband the organization in its current form and lay off most of its staff.
The SBCA -- which will continue running an education program for satellite installers -- will also kill its semiannual SkyFORUM conferences in New York, which the two direct-broadcast satellite companies used as a forum to tout their companies to Wall Street.
EchoStar and DirecTV each have their own lobbying offices in Washington.
