Mixed Quarter for DirecTV

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DirecTV on Tuesday reported a 7.5 percent higher profit in the third quarter. The results fell below Wall Street forecasts, although revenue growth was slightly better than expected.

The El Segundo company, which is the largest satellite TV provider in the United States, reported net income of $565 million (90 cents a share), compared with $516 million (70 cents) in the same period a year earlier. Revenue rose 8 percent to $7.42 billion.

Analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters on averaged expected net income of 93 cents a share on revenue of $7.4 billion.

DirecTV ended the quarter with 20 million U.S. subscribers. The company’s churn rate was higher than usual – 1.74 percent compared with 1.62 percent a year earlier. That was blamed on a carriage dispute with Viacom Inc that resulted in channels such as Nickelodeon and MTV being unavailable to DirecTV subscribers for nine days in July.

Shares closed down 15 cents, or less than 1 percent, to $50.51 on the Nasdaq.

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