DirecTV gains premarket on Q4 beat, revenue growth

[whitewolf8214]

DirecTV gains premarket on Q4 beat, revenue growth
Feb 19 2015, 09:08 ET | By: Jason Aycock, SA News Editor
http://seekingalpha.com/news/231020...9:ea7233593eee0f0f2f6659b60edd9204#email_link
DirecTV's (NASDAQTV) Q4 featured revenues that grew 4% (to $8.92B), mainly due to strong ARPU in the U.S. unit. The revenues led full 2014 growth of 5% to a total of $26B in sales.
Operating profit before depreciation/amortization of $2B was down 2% and margin declined to 22.4%, on headwinds in Latin America.
U.S. ARPU of $117.30 was up solidly from $111.74. For the full year, U.S. ARPU was up 5.4%. U.S. net subscriber adds in Q4 of about 149K, on higher gross adds and a slight improvement in monthly churn. Subscribers at year-end of 20.35M.
Latin America ARPU of $46.48 declined from $51.47; for the full year, Latin America ARPU was down 6.3%. Regional net subscriber adds of 118K (down from 231K, as gross adds slipped to 980K and churn was up to 2.31% from 2.21%).
Free cash flow declined to $814M, chiefly due to a reduction in cash generated from working capital (customer receivables timing in U.S., vendor payment timing in Latin America). For the full year, free cash flow passed $3.1B; year-end cash balance of $4.6B.
Conference call at 2 p.m. ET.
Shares are up 0.5% premarket.
Press release http://seekingalpha.com/pr/12567286-directv-announces-fourth-quarter-and-full-year-2014-results

 

[nelson61]

DIRECTV 8-k

https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1465112/000115752315000626/a51043087ex99_1.htm

"In the fourth quarter, DIRECTV U.S. revenues increased 5% to $7.14 billion compared with the fourth quarter of 2013 primarily due to strong ARPU growth along with a larger subscriber base. ARPU increased 5.0% to $117.30 mostly due to price increases on programming packages, higher advanced receiver service fees, higher ad sales, increased commercial business revenues and higher set-top box lease fees. These improvements were partially offset by increased promotional offers to existing customers and lower revenues from pay-per-view events. DIRECTV U.S. ended the year with 20.35 million subscribers.

DIRECTV U.S. net subscriber additions of approximately 149,000 increased compared to the prior year period principally due to higher gross subscriber additions and a four basis point improvement in the average monthly churn rate. The increase in gross additions was mainly associated with a successful new ad campaign, enhanced promotions, wider distribution in the consumer electronics channel and competitor programming disputes. The decrease in the monthly churn rate was primarily due to lower voluntary churn from improved retention practices, as well as more successful winback offers. "