DIRECTV Also Witnesses 2Q Success in Latin America

[Gugi47]

Second quarter results for DIRECTV's U.S. operations were solid. The Latin American business for the satellite TV company also performed well during the three-month period.

In its release of quarterly results last week, the company said net subscriber additions for DIRECTV Latin America increased 30 percent, by 184,000, when compared to the same period last year. DIRECTV said it was serving 3.659 million viewers throughout the region at the close of the period.

The subscriber jump was attributed to higher gross additions in Brazil, Argentina and Venezuela.

Also, ARPU (average revenue per unit) increased in the quarter, to $57.07. That helped DIRECTV Latin America grow revenue by 49 percent, to $611 million, during the three-month period.

Nonetheless, the company said there are challenges for its Latin American operations. For starters, churn rose to 1.81 percent throughout the region.

The increase in churn was attributed to a 21,000 subscriber adjustment related to the integration of Sky Brazil and DIRECTV Brazil. Excluding the adjustment in Brazil, monthly churn would have been 1.61 percent.

That is still higher than last year's second quarter churn rate, and DIRECTV attributed that to higher churn in the PanAmericana region related to its prepaid business, competition and faster growth.

DIRECTV owns 74 percent of Sky Brazil, 41 percent of Sky Mexico and 100 percent of PanAmericana, which covers most of the remaining countries in the region.

Sky Mexico, which has results accounted for separately and therefore is not consolidated into DIRECTV Latin America numbers, had about 1.69 million subscribers as of June 30. That would bring total subscribers in the region served by DIRECTV's platforms to 5.35 million.