Subscriber Growth, Revenue Gains at DIRECTV

EL SEGUNDO, August 7: The
second quarter at The DIRECTV Group saw revenues increase by 16 percent on the
same period last year to $4.81 billion, with a 2-percent increase in profit to
$455 million, driven by subscriber gains at its platforms in the U.S. and Latin
America.

“DIRECTV’s strong
second-quarter results again point to the successful execution of our strategy
to offer the nation’s best television experience to higher quality
subscribers,” said Chase Carey, the president and CEO of The DIRECTV Group. “In
particular, our industry-leading content, HD, DVR and interactive services are
driving strong top-line growth, higher operating margins and most importantly,
substantial cash flow growth.”

At DIRECTV U.S., revenues
increased 13 percent to $4.2 billion, but profit dipped slightly to $717
million. The segment’s ARPU increased by 7 percent to $81.80, and churn was
down to 1.49 percent. DIRECTV U.S. ended the quarter with 17.16 million
subscribers, an increase of 5 percent over the 16.32 million subscribers
reported on June 30, 2007.

At DIRECTV Latin America,
there was a 49-percent bump in revenues to $611 million, with a 20.1-percent
ARPU increase to $57.07 and operating profit more than doubled to $102 million.
Net subscriber additions gained 30 percent to 184,000, but churn was also up,
to 1.81 percent. The total number of DIRECTV subscribers in Latin America as of
June 30, 2008, increased 24 percent to 3.66 million.

—By Mansha Daswani