DirecTV 4Q profit more than doubles |
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Wed, 07 Feb 2007 14:44
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EL SEGUNDO, Calif. (AFX) - DirecTV Group Inc. said Wednesday fourth-quarter earnings more than doubled as the satellite television operator's subscriber base grew and it changed its accounting for set-top boxes.The El Segundo, Calif., company said net income surged to $356 million, or 29 cents per share, from $121 million, or 9 cents per share, in the year-ago period.Analysts polled by Thomson Financial were looking for profit of 30 cents per share.Operating profit more than doubled to $915 million after the company capitalized customer equipment under a lease program. That delays the recognition of the equipment as an expense by spreading it out over years instead of booking it all at once.Revenue rose 16 percent to $4.18 billion from $3.6 billion last year, and surpassed the Street's average estimate of $4.1 billion.The increase came from a larger subscriber base and higher revenue per subscriber, as customers spent more for pay-per-view and high-definition programming.Net subscriber additions rose 38 percent to 275,000, leaving DirecTV with just under 16 million subscribers at the end of the year.A year ago, the company changed its customer acquisition practices by targeting those more likely to make monthly payments. The move caused a slowdown in subscriber growth.Churn rate, or the pace of customer defection, fell to 1.57 percent from 1.7 percent a year ago.DirecTV is currently controlled by Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. In December, Murdoch agreed to sell his stake in DirecTV to John Malone's Liberty Media Corp. in exchange for Malone's voting stake in News Corp. The deal is still pending regulatory and shareholder approval.Copyright 2006 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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