DirecTV Adds 380K Subs in Q3

EL SEGUNDO, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- DIRECTV (NASDAQ:DTV - News) today reported an increase in third quarter 2010 revenues of 10% to $6.03 billion, operating profit before depreciation and amortization(1) (OPBDA) of 10% to $1.48 billion and operating profit of 27% to $868 million compared with last year’s third quarter. DIRECTV reported third quarter net income increased 31% to $479 million and diluted earnings per share grew 49% to $0.55 compared with the same period last year.

“For the fourth consecutive quarter, DIRECTV achieved double-digit revenue and OPBDA growth while also increasing EPS by 49% as more consumers across the Americas continue to purchase DIRECTV and SKY’s unrivaled choice of video services,” said Mike White, president and CEO of DIRECTV. “Driven by our industry leading HD, DVR and interactive services, gross and net subscriber additions increased in both our U.S. and Latin American businesses for the first time in 2½ years and as a result, we widened our leading position as the world’s largest provider of pay TV services with over 27 million subscribers.”

White added, “We were also pleased to see that even with DIRECTV’s strong subscriber growth and related increase in acquisition costs, consolidated OPBDA margin remained strong at 25% and year-to-date free cash flow grew 26% to over $2 billion due in part to our intense focus on improving productivity and capturing scale efficiencies. We also made significant progress in the quarter toward strengthening DIRECTV’s balance sheet as we issued $3 billion in senior notes, repaid the remaining secured debt of $1.2 billion and repurchased $1.37 billion of our stock bringing total year-to-date repurchases to $3.6 billion.”

DirecTV Group Inc. (NYSE: DTV)