DIRECTV Posts Strong Earnings

The DIRECTV Group posted another strong quarter today; silencing doubters who felt increasing competition would affect the satellite television provider.

Overall, revenues increased 17% over the 1^st quarter 2007, coming in at $4.59 billion. Net income came in at $371 million for the quarter, representing a 10% increase with the bottom line earnings coming in at $0.32 cents a share, a 19% increase over last year.

The numbers were once again driven by strong subscriber growth, and a continued rise in Average Monthly Revenue per Subscriber (ARPU) growth. DirecTV’s numbers in these areas broke down as follows.

Subscribers: DirecTV had 275,000 net subscriber additions in the first quarter in the U.S. Add to that 200,000 net additions in the Latin American market and DirecTV added 475,000 total net subscribers, similar to the number added in the 4^th quarter of 2007. Overall, net subscriber additions increased 47% over the 1^st quarter 2007. market.

Revenues: The Company’s U.S. revenue increased 14% quarter-over-quarter to $4.0 billion with ARPU growing 8.6% to $79.70. Latin American revenues jumped 47% to $542 million, with ARPU up 19.9% to $53.52.

DirecTV also announced an increase in their stock buyback program. The current program authorizing the company to buyback up to $1 billion of outstanding shares was increased up to $3 billion dollars. At the same time, DirecTV announced they had reached an agreement with Liberty Media which would cap Liberty’s voting interest at 47.9%.

Wall Street cheered the quarterly results, sending shares of DTV up .93 cents or 3.6% at $26.73 in midday trading. DirecTV will hold a conference call later today to discuss the results and offer an outlook on the rest of 2008.

by Aaron Kemp on May 7, 2008 · 1 comment

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