DirecTV Group Inc. (DTV) swung to a fourth-quarter profit absent
prior-year charges related to its merger with Liberty
Entertainment, while revenue rose more than expected as subscriber
growth rose.
Shares jumped 5.7% to $46.75 premarket.
The company has continued to add to its customer counts,
especially in Latin America. Premium-TV companies have been mostly
resilient during the economic downturn, despite consumer-spending
cutbacks. In the most recent quarter, U.S. net subscriber additions
were 289,000, compared with 119,000 a year earlier. It added a net
378,000 subscribers in Latin America, compared with 254,000 a year
earlier.
DirecTV reported a profit of $618 million, or 74 cents a share,
compared with a year-earlier loss of $32 million, or 3 cents a
share. Excluding charges related to the merger, the prior-year
profit would have been 48 cents.
Revenue jumped 11% to $6.62 billion.
Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters had most recently forecast
earnings of 62 cents on $6.52 billion in revenue.
In the U.S., where the company has most of its customers, its
subscriber base stood at 19.2 million as of the end of the
period--3.6% bigger than a year earlier. Churn, or the rate of
subscriber cancellations, dropped to 1.4% in the latest quarter
from 1.5% a year earlier. Average revenue per subscriber rose
4.6%.
-By Nathan Becker and Matt Jarzemsky, Dow Jones Newswires; 212-416-2240; matthew.jarzemsky@dowjones.com;