By Joyzelle Davis

Los Angeles, Feb. 11 (Bloomberg) -- U.S. prosecutors charged 17 software programmers and hardware manufacturers with stealing millions of dollars in satellite TV services from Hughes Electronics Corp.'s DirecTV and EchoStar Communications Corp.

Ten of the defendants, including one who admitted responsibility for more than $15 million in losses, have agreed to plead guilty, U.S. Attorney Debra Yang said. The defendants come from seven states.

Hughes Electronics' three previous generations of access cards have been compromised by hackers. The El Segundo, California- based company spent more than $25 million to develop the most recent card, the FBI said. The company in the third quarter of 2002 cut off access to 50,000 customers accused of using counterfeit cards to watch programming without paying.

``Our office hopes that these arrests will have a real impact on this type of crime,'' Yang said. She said the defendants include ``the world's best and more sophisticated hackers.''

DirecTV is the largest U.S. satellite television provider with more than 11.2 million subscribers, compared with rival EchoStar Communications Corp.'s Dish Network, which has about 8 million subscribers.

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