DIRECTV subscribers up 36% in Uruguay at end-1H 2014

The Uruguayan communications regulator Unidad Reguladora de Servicios de Comunicaciones (URSEC) has released a survey of the telecommunications market in Uruguay up to the end of June 2014.

The number of Pay TV subscribers at mid-year was 685,591, up from 620,926 at the end of June 2013, a 10.4% increase. Over the preceding 12 months DIRECTV Uruguay grew by over 36% whilst the remainder of the market only grew by 5.2%.

Pay TV evolution

             June 2008  June 2009  June 2010  June 2011  June 2012  June 2013  June 2014
             ---------  ---------  ---------  ---------  ---------  ---------  ---------
Subscribers    398,014    438,729    470,314    526,093    561,268    620,926    685,591

              End-2008   End-2009   End-2010   End-2011   End-2012   End-2013
             ---------  ---------  ---------  ---------  ---------  ---------
Subscribers    417,206    448,204    491,000    536,812    592,699    652,006

Pay TV Market Shares

                                                    June 2012            June 2013            June 2014
                                          -------------------  -------------------  -------------------   Y-o-Y
                                          Subscribers   Share  Subscribers   Share  Subscribers   Share  Growth
                                          -----------  ------  -----------  ------  -----------  ------  ------
DIRECTV (Directv de Uruguay LTDA)              62,904     11%      103,911     17%      141,800     21%   36.5%
Cablevisión (Bersabel S.A.)                    60,101     11%       61,820     10%       64,822     10%    4.9%
TCC (Tractoral S.A.)                           48,520      9%       50,606      8%       55,300      8%    9.3%
Nuevo Siglo (Riselco S.A.)                     48,955      9%       49,413      8%       49,454      7%    0.1%
Montecable (Monte Cablevideo S.A.)             50,038      9%       47,606      8%       48,647      7%    2.2%
Punta Cable (Consorcio San Fernando)           25,263      4%       27,066      4%       27,316      4%    0.9%
Multiseñal (Multicanal S.A.)                   18,251      3%       18,292      3%       19,265      3%    5.3%
Cablevisión (Space Energy Tech S.A.)           16,166      3%       18,029      3%       19,605      3%    8.7%
Cable Plus (Cable Plus S.A.)                   15,403      3%       16,346      3%       16,378      2%    0.2%
Cablevisión (Audomar S.A.)                     14,006      2%       14,903      2%       15,670      2%    5.1%
Cablevisión (Visión Satelital)                                      12,228      2%       13,400      2%    9.6%
  Others                                      201,661     36%      200,706     32%      213,934     31%    6.6%
                                          -----------          -----------          -----------          ------
TOTAL                                         561,268              620,926              685,591           10.4%

DIRECTV leads Ecuador's pay TV market in 2Q 2014

(Diez sistemas abarcan el 80% del mercado nacional de televisión pagada)

Tuesday, August 19th, 2014 

QUITO — Ecuador’s Superintendencia de Telecomunicaciones (SUPERTEL) has released pay TV statistics for the top 10 pay TV operators in the country to the end of June 2014. These operators cover 80% of the market.

DIRECTV’s satellite service was the leader with a share of 35% (391 thousand subscribers). CAN TV was second with a share of 20% (217 thousand subscribers).

Operator                    2013 1Q  2013 2Q  2013 3Q  2013 4Q  2014 1Q  2014 2Q
                            -------  -------  -------  -------  -------  -------
1 DIRECTV                   288,780  304,686  317,012  325,485  377,767  390,812
2 CNT TV                     44,794   92,265  114,268  142,731  179,379  216,534
3 SISTEMA TV CABLE (Quito)   62,219   70,786   72,818   73,289   73,273   73,163
4 SATELCOM (Guayaquil)       54,158   62,323   65,838   65,073   66,021   67,274
5 CABLEUNION (Quito)         29,522   28,830   30,013   31,423   32,044   33,052
6 TV NET (Guayaquil)         22,612   24,124   24,744   24,966   24,185   24,114
7 UNIVISA (Quito)            19,627   27,428   27,229   26,378   25,337   23,601
8 PUERTO CABLE (Machala)     10,217   10,586   10,586   16,044   16,044   16,044
9 UNIVISA (Guayaquil)        13,602   21,608   21,631   20,392   20,392   13,630
10 CLARO TV                       -        -        -    5,068   15,968   13,415

DIRECTV adds 139,000 subscribers; DTVLA adds 260,000 in 3Q 2013

DIRECTV Eclipses 37 Million Total Subscribers in the Quarter

• DIRECTV U.S. attains net subscriber additions of 139,000 driven by the lowest third quarter churn in 6 years
• Sky Brasil and PanAmericana add 260,000 net new customers in the quarter
• DIRECTV Latin America and Sky Mexico surpass 17 million customers

EL SEGUNDO, Calif. — DIRECTV (NASDAQ:DTV) today announced an increase in third quarter 2013 revenues of 6% to $7.88 billion, operating profit before depreciation and amortization (OPBDA) of 15% to $1.93 billion, operating profit of 15% to $1.23 billion, and earnings per share of 42% to $1.28 compared to last year’s third quarter.

DIRECTV U.S. Segment

In the quarter, DIRECTV U.S. revenues increased 7% to $6.17 billion compared with the third quarter of 2012 primarily due to strong ARPU growth along with a larger subscriber base. DIRECTV U.S. net subscriber additions increased in the quarter relative to the prior year period principally due to a lower average monthly churn rate of 1.61%. In the third quarter of 2012, churn was unfavorably impacted by a contract dispute with a large programmer that resulted in the removal of several channels for nine days. ARPU increased 6.2% to $102.37 mostly due to higher advanced receiver service fees, price increases on programming packages, higher fees for a new enhanced warranty program, as well as higher pay-per-view revenues. These improvements were partially offset by increased promotional offers to new and existing customers. DIRECTV U.S. ended the quarter with 20.16 million subscribers compared with 19.98 million subscribers reported for the quarter ended September 30, 2012.

Subscriber Data (in 000′s except Churn):

                                             Three Months Ended     Nine Months Ended
                                                  September 30,         September 30,
                                                2013       2012       2013       2012
                                           ---------  ---------  ---------  ---------
Gross Subscriber Additions                     1,109      1,107      2,841      2,911
Average Monthly Subscriber Churn               1.61%      1.74%      1.53%      1.57%
Net Subscriber Additions (Disconnections)        139         67         76         96
Cumulative Subscribers                        20,160     19,981     20,160     19,981

DIRECTV Latin America

In the third quarter, DTVLA revenues increased 5% to $1.66 billion principally due to strong subscriber growth over the last year partially offset by an 11.7% decline in ARPU mostly driven by unfavorable changes in foreign exchange rates. Net additions of 260,000 were lower than the prior year due to a decline in gross additions and higher churn. Gross additions fell 5% to 1.02 million principally due to certain limitations on importing set-top boxes for new customers in Venezuela, as well as lower post-paid subscriber additions in Argentina and Brazil mostly associated with stricter credit and sales filters. These declines were partially offset by improved gross additions in Chile and Colombia. Total average monthly churn increased to 2.27% and average monthly post-paid churn increased to 1.93% mainly due to higher churn in Brazil primarily related to the effect of a higher mix of middle market subscribers along with more challenging economic and competitive conditions.

Subscriber Data* (in 000′s except Churn):

                                               Three Months Ended     Nine Months Ended
                                                    September 30,         September 30,
                                                  2013       2012       2013       2012
                                             ---------  ---------  ---------  ---------
Gross Subscriber Additions                       1,023      1,081      3,393      3,234 
Average Monthly Total Subscriber Churn*          2.27%      1.91%      2.43%      1.84%
Average Monthly Post-paid Subscriber Churn*      1.93%      1.54%      2.18%      1.51%
Net Subscriber Additions                           260        543      1,008      1,781
Cumulative Subscribers                          11,337      9,666     11,337      9,666

* DIRECTV Latin America subscriber data exclude subscribers of the Sky Mexico service. In addition, DTVLA gross and net additions exclude 7,000 video subscribers acquired during the three months ended September 30, 2012 as well as 1,000 and 14,000 video subscribers acquired during the nine months ended September 30, 2013 and September 30, 2012, respectively. DTVLA cumulative subscriber counts include these acquired customers.

DIRECTV Latin America owns approximately 93% of Sky Brasil, 41% of Sky Mexico and 100% of PanAmericana, which covers most of the remaining countries in the region. Sky Brasil and PanAmericana ended the third quarter with 5.26 million and 6.08 million subscribers, respectively. Sky Mexico, whose results are accounted for as an equity method investment and therefore are not consolidated by DTVLA, had approximately 5.88 million subscribers as of September 30, 2013, bringing the total subscribers in the region to 17.22 million.