DirecTV 1Q Gets Latin American Boost, But Adds Fewer U.S. Subscribers

DirecTV (NYSE:DTV) reported an 8% improvement in first-quarter profit as it continued to expand in Latin American markets like Brazil, Colombia and Argentina.

However, its shares fell early Tuesday morning as it added fewer customers in the U.S. than analysts were expecting.

The company, which owns 93% of Sky Brasil, 41% of Sky Mexico and all of Pan Americana, saw revenue jump 33% to $1.49 billion in Latin America.

While average monthly revenue per subscriber fell 1.8% in the fast-growing market, net subscriber additions jumped 28%.

DirecTV added 593,000 subscribers in the region, which is in-line with its guidance and up from the 427,000 new customers a year ago. The company had a total of 8.46 million subscribers, a 36% year-over-year increase from the same period in 2011.

Over the next five years, the digital television entertainment provider plans to double its Latin America subscribers to more than 16 million and annual revenue to more than $10 billion.

The El Segundo, Calif.-based company reported quarterly net income of $731 million, or $1.07 a share, compared with a year-earlier $674 million, or 85 cents. That beat average analyst estimates of $1.06 in a Thomson Reuters poll.

Revenue for the three-month period was up 12% to $7.05 billion from $6.3 billion a year ago, narrowly missing the Street’s view of $7.06 billion.

DirecTV added 81,000 subscribers in the U.S., bringing total subscribers to 19.97 million, slightly ahead of 19.4 million last year. That was weaker than the 92,000 analysts were looking for, according to StreetAccount data.